Arsenal were simply lacking the experience of big games to cope with Liverpool

Despite the loss to Liverpool, let us trust the process

Good afternoon to Gooners from all over the world – from from Patrick in Nairobi, Kenya.

I am sure we are all disappointed by yesterday’s loss to Liverpool. We all hoped for a miracle. But as we all know, Anfield is such a difficult place to play for any visiting team. We have seen bigger teams go there and get clobbered.

I know most us believe that we are a big team, which may be true to some extent. But the truth is, we are in the midst of a rebuilding process. Nonetheless, we have such a good young team. All that the boys are lacking is the necessary experience to handle such high pressure games.

Only three of the four players that started the match are above 24 years of age. Majority of the players are in their first, second or third season playing in EPL. Contrast this with the Liverpool team that has been together for about five years now, that has won both the EPL and the UCL.

The performance in the first half was really pleasing. It looked like the pressure took its toll on the boys in the second half. All the three goals conceded in the second period were more out of individual errors than Liverpool’s brilliance.

I would give this team two years to mature. In fact, I believe the team is literally punching above its weight. Finally, there seems to be in place a process that we can trust. There will however be bumps along the way.

The time to get behind the team more than ever before is now. COYG.

Patrick Karani, Nairobi Kenya.

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26 Comments

  1. A good article Patrick and I agree with most of your views except:

    “I know most us believe that we are a big team, which may be true to some extent.” What do you mean here? It is not a belief it is s fact that we are a big club, a giant actually.

    “Majority of the players are in their first, second or third season playing in EPL. Contrast this with the Liverpool team that has been together for about five years now, that has won both the EPL and the UCL.”

    What about teams that have gotten results against Liverpool? West Ham, Brentford and Brighton got results against Liverpool. Have they been together for about five years and won both EPL and UCL?

    We lost 5 nil to Man city but Crystal Palace won there with a clean sheet to boot. Have they been together for about five years and won both EPL and UCL?

    1. Why you guys keep bringing up Crystal Palace, Brighton and Co baffles me really…….. you would gladly trade positions with them come end of season, solely because they played well against City and Liverpool respectively?

      1. The fact that you say we wouldn’t trade places with them shows that you regard them as inferior to us. If inferior teams get results against Liverpool why can’t we?

        It is the reality even if it is not something you wish to hear. They had game plan, they gave it their all and got the results. Why can’t we do the same? It is the same story every season.

        We keep bringing them up to show that there is no excuses for such performances.

        1. Your analogy is baffling HH, so because some teams beat Liverpool we must also beat them? Is that how football works nowadays?

          1. Just listen to yourself. Must we loose to them? Is it a traditionthat arsenal must loose to Liverpool and Man city?

        2. Je comprends votre dépit, je l’ai moi même vécu. Mais il ne faut pas oublier que l’invincibilité absolue n’existe pas en football sinon les matchs n’auront aucun sens. L’équipe la mieux préparée du monde peut subir des revers. L’Allemagne et le Brésil ont subit des cartons en coupe du monde. Ils ne l’imaginaient sûrement pas…

          (Translation…. I understand your disappointment, I have experienced it myself. But we must not forget that absolute invincibility does not exist in football or the matches will be meaningless. The best-prepared team in the world can suffer setbacks. Germany and Brazil were hit hard in the World Cup. They certainly did not imagine it …)

  2. Lack of experience was one of the factors, but the biggest one was the lack of guts. We were too afraid to increase the distances between our players, hence our attackers didn’t press high up the pitch

    I thought Arteta is different than the likes of Mourinho, Nuno, Rodgers and Benitez, yet he also becomes a bus driver when facing a big opposition in their turf

    If we can’t escape from the opponent’s high pressing, we should’ve distributed the ball from Ramsdale to Smith-Rowe. I don’t think Alexander-Arnold can dominate Smith-Rowe in aerial duels

  3. They got lucky in lots of games during their unbeaten run which included draws. Arshita is the same as ole, & no young coach without experience should ever be in charge of a top 4 team in top 4 Europe. It will never work. It’s the inevitable that shita will be sacked. It’s just about how much time is wasted & how many players are lost/damaged during that time. They don’t know what to do with the ball or without it.

  4. Nice article.

    I honestly don’t need to be told to trust the process, I really do.
    Look, it’s painful and frustrating to always lose like that an Anfield but context and objectivity is key!

    To begin with, let’s imagine we support one of Chelsea, United or City and our team is about to face Arsenal, is there any player in Arsenal you would be scared of facing?

    The honest truth is, the rebuild is actually just starting, Mikel and the board changed their approach to recruitment which we all agree with and that means we can’t really compete FOR NOW

    A front three of Saka, Smith and Lacazette will not strike fear into most defenses let alone Liverpool at Anfield
    I bet other teams are even more scared of facing Ramsdale than our front three.
    Now we have worked on our spine, we need to continue by getting at least one goal scoring winger and an elite striker, offload Elneny and Niles and bring in two capable midfield dynamos as their replacements.

    People sometimes overrate our team because of the amount of money we have spent but they forget we are only spending to at least catch up with our main rivals and not immediately surpass them – and as we spend,they spend even more- that is why I am always reluctant to call for a manager’s head AS LONG AS HE HAS NOT LOST THE DRESSING ROOM.

    If you ask some on here, they would tell you we have a better team than West Ham. Analyse the team objectively before setting unrealistic targets that leads to frustration and disappointment.

    All the managers we clamour for will still struggle imo, until we get reliable offensive players, I am willing to support my team and my manager!

  5. How can we “trust the process” when the process has someone processing it who has no experience of achieving “the process” plus what process? Every team has a process and many fail with it, so to speak. When does this process come to a conclusion? What guarantees are there? No guarantees, No process.

    1. Reggie, there are no guarantees that the process works, nor that changing managers improves performance, or that buying big name players makes us a better team. If you want guarantees buy an electrical product, because nothing in football is guaranteed. Does that mean that it will fail? No, of course not.
      Managers who have a “proven” successful process have regularly failed to export that process to another club. Do Spurs sack Conte if they lose to Leeds? Is Conte then a bad manager if his methods fail there? Almost every big name manager’s sacking is proof that there is rarely a “one size fits all” magic bullet. Particularly when joining a club with the breadth of problems that met both Emery and Arteta.
      It comes down to whether, while accepting that we should be a top 4 team, you believe we are a) moving towards that and b) doing so fast enough. Yes to both and you can trust the process. No to either, then you can advocate sacking Arteta, throwing away anything that may have been achieved in the last two years, and starting from scratch under a new manager with his own non-guaranteed process.

      1. But many who have a good record of having a “process”, have more success than rookies at achieving a “process” Pep done it at more than one club, Klopp same, Tuchel same, Conte same, Allegri same all in prem at moment and all can trust their “process” how can you trust a process that has no back up.

  6. A nice article. I personally believe that for the first 30 min. ARS. had its plan to defend and then counter attack any available opportunity. After understanding what is really happening on the field, Klopp started provoking players and Arteta. As a result of that, the less experienced Arteta and his young team were mentally crushed and shy to come out of their shells. Consequently, LIV. scored the first goal. I think this is the turning point of the game. Liverpool knew that the three points are valuable to narrow the gap with Chelsea.
    It will be okay if a BIG lesson is learnt to look forward.

    1. I thought we were sitting ducks first 35 minutes and thought it was only a matter of time. We were not in control of anything at all and were not that fluid when we had the ball either, giving it away or passing to nobody to often.

      1. I think that was the plan. Liv. was found it difficult to penetrate for 30min.Yes you r right Reggie the counter attack was poor but it could work(if not provoked).Klopp master minded the tempo of the game and as usual ARS. were mentally weak to confront. As I said it will be nice if we take our lessons and bounce back

  7. Watch the next tie against Liverpool, watch Mane in particular whob starts kicking our defenders into submission from the start. These guys were simply sharks that smelled the fear and bullied us into submission. We lost the fight before stepping into the ring. Sambi, Partey, Tavares, even ESR was back to his timid self, playing safe, passing backwards, not adventurous. I can’t blame Auba (effort but little service), certainly not Laca. The problem was the approach, Arteta. Negative against bigger teams. That’s why we’re nowhere near good enough for the UCL, which we were supposed to be winning by next year. We don’t think, plan and act like the real big clubs. We’re not a big European club, we never were.

  8. Nice article Patrick,
    We are a young team- yes , it’s at anfield-yes, but must it be always a mauling? Why do we always make it easy for them? Why the big score Everytime! I won’t let the Liverpool loss define our season rather it goes along way to defining our mentality against the top 3 sides topping the league at the moment. We are giving them too much respect. In our winning run, we seem to drop the intensity and cede posetion! why can’t we go on considering we are not in Europe? Arteta is doing a good job, all I need to see and demand of him is to keep pushing the boys for 90+ game intensity

  9. I agree, we still have one major issue that after the summer I thought would burn us. Laca and Auba are good strikers but their not world class. Even spurs have two world class strikers and look what they do with a bang average overpriced squad. Auba is getting too old now and Laca can be ……well too French but I don’t discredit his efforts lately.

    We don’t have that beast of a Striker with a killer instinct or plan B. There are plenty of players out there but we need to get them in. Also our midfield needs more support and numbers. We do play nice football and we did yesterday against LFC. But whilst we’re relying on Auba and Laca to get goals we’ll always struggle against big teams. Look what Henry did for us when we were not at the races. That’s what we need someone who can get something from nothing I have no confidence Auba and Laca can do that

  10. Firstly I want to say that I don’t trust the process, the main reason being that it is being conducted by the wrong people. Patience is necessary but in the hands of the Kroenkes, Edu and Arteta I may as well trust Arthur Daily to sell me a reliable used car. There were no excuses for yesterday’s dislay. Outside of home ground we had the advantage of playing a banged up Liverpool team. Neither our manager or players delivered. Regarding Arteta’s negativity, I don’t think he can learn and change his spots. As for the players, too many of them are averagely good without being outstanding. I don’t agree with those claiming it has been a great transfer window. In my view Arsenal are two outstanding players away from being a contender for anything. The process is going to be a long one. I still hope it reignites with a new manager and real vision.

  11. There was no proper game plan and no plan B at all. Liverpool did not have good results in their past 2 matches and we could have taken advantage of that but no. We played into their hands. Our pressing was poor, we lost the ball so many times and if not for Ramsdale, the defeat could have been larger.

  12. Look were calling Liverpool a banged up team lmfao. This is a team that have already beaten City Chelsea and destroyed Utd at Old Trafford. Yeah they lost against West Ham but what happened to West Ham, they went and lost to Wolves. The Premier league is superbly competitive, also like the international break came at the right time for us before, it came at a bad time for us this time benefiting Liverpool.

    If people don’t trust the process then that’s fine that’s your perogative. But don’t wait for one bad result against one of the strongest teams in Europe to come crawling from under your rocks to slate the players and manager. We needed to see we were putting a gap between us and the other teams aside from the big 3 at the moment, and in truth we are starting to.

    If people think the transfer work was anywhere near done they are mistaken. We spent a net 100m last summer and it will probably take another 150m to put is in a bracket that can compete with the top 3. That’s the process what we have now is a very good foundation that will improve with time. Not decline because of the age of the squad we Arteta and Emery inherited.

    Someone said above we are 2 players away from competing. If you can see that’s progress cause when Arteta took over we were probably 6 or 7 players away.

    1. Liverpool did not beat City nor Chelsea. City literally run circles around Liverpool in that game. As to how they came out with a draw is still beyond me.

      1. My mistake but still those Liverpool squads were not full strength and they didn’t lose. But what I was saying that’s the difference, when Liverpool play badly they have players like Salah, Mane, Teeth and jota who can get something . Arsenal play badly we lose We currently don’t have anything like what Liverpool City Chelsea or even Utd in our squad. I think it will need to be our biggest and most important investment

      2. And they only got a draw at home against Chelsea because VAR gave them a penalty and Chelsea had 10 men for the 2nd half.
        Otherwise it would have been a certain defeat

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