Arsenal suffered their first loss this season away at Liverpool leaving most fans disappointed, especially with the manner of the defeat.
Here are Dan’s Arsenal player ratings.
Leno (6)
Commanded his penalty box when we were allowing Liverpool to cross the ball into the box.
A few times showed good timing to take the ball off strikers
Needs to start kicking the ball long though.
Maitland-Niles (5)
Hard to judge as he got nowhere near Robinson out wide but this was tactical, so that’s what he’s told to do?
Started to get forward at 3-0.
Luiz (5 )
One performance that tells us we got carried away with our transfer window
Hard to score against as he headed everything away and led us through the first half yet was responsible for two Liverpool goals inside 10 minutes
That is David Luiz in a nutshell.
Sokratis (5)
Got his head to most things in the first half but he and Luiz were not watching Matip for a free header
Poor in possession again.
Monreal (5)
Was in the penalty area for most Liverpool crosses when he should have been out wide challenging the Reds wing-backs but then again he was told to do that.
Guendouzi (7) MOTM
Never stopped working
Blocked lots of shots and intercepted brilliantly
Showed great temperament and discipline.
Willock (7)
Tried to break away but had zero out ball
Tactically we were set up to simply contain giving Willock few options?
What you want to see from a youngster is their temperament which he shows.
Xhaka (5)
Again is it the manager’s fault for just simply wanting to congest midfield?
His experience would have helped but very rarely did he get on the ball and move our play forward
He was just a body behind the ball.
Ceballos (4)
From very deep, tried some risky passes, giving away possession many times
Seemed to tire having to chase around so much.
Pepe (6)
Pace clearly worried Liverpool’s defence but didn’t happen enough to make a difference.
Aubameyang (6)
At this level, will know you get limited chances at the big away grounds
Strangely laid back when put through on goal and needed to do more the few times he had the ball on the wing
Didn’t hold up ball like Pepe.
Subs
Torreira (6)
Showed energy which helped us finish strong.
To be fair to those who started at that point Emery was allowing his midfield to be more ambitious.
Lacazette (5)
Why wait so late to make this change?
Mkhitaryan (5)
Again why so late?
It’s hard to believe the likes of Henderson, Wijnaldum and Fabinho dictated the more technical midfielders (Ceballos, Willock, Guendouzi, Xhaka). It’s like watching a bunch of gladiators torturing some princes
Regarding Ceballos, he reminds me of Sanchez a lot. High risk playing style which could produce a lot of goals or assists, but could also lose the ball frequently
Perhaps this is why Zidane prefers experienced midfielders like Modric and Kroos over him, because they prefer to play safe. However, I believe Ceballos would contribute a lot to Arsenal, especially at the Emirates
“Torturing some princes” hahah. What an example.
The main difference between the teams is the manager. Great managers are confident, when they decide on their best formation they stick with it. They force the other teams to adapt to them.
Spot on ! We lost this game due to our managers stupid tactics , playing out from the back made life easy for liverpool and leaving our best players on the bench it was a disaster from the coach
why is that hard to believe? They do the majority of games. Just because they aren’t big names with a lot of flair doesn’t mean they aren’t talented and well coached players. I have no idea why anybody was ever saying our midfield is as good as theirs. Gotta stop only looking at whose name is on the shirt.
You can have all the talent in the world but if you setup with tactics that dont suit your team then team is going to struggle. That’s why madrid got rid of Mourinho n that’s why it is sucidle for us to play defensive setup bec neither we have the players or mentality to do that. Since wenger the club culture has been about good entertaining football with attack n that has carried over. It does matter what name you have on the back of the shirt bec those names win you the matches with their talent. I still believe we have a better midfield than liverpool, it was the wrong setup to play with. If we would have gone with 433 like liverpool n attacked them allowing our players to showcase their ability we would have gotten some sort of result. But when your midfielders r playing like defenders n not allowed to take risk or show their capability then this is the outcome. Give the same squad to pep or klopp then you will see what happens. Specially klopp who has made ordinary players into such good ones.
No one was at fault for that Matip header except VVD….. He nearly lifted Guendouzi off his feet to move him out the way to make space for Matip ?
On another day Pepe and Auba would have scored those chances putting us 2/3 up and then the game would have been completely different, I’m not going to judge any of the team too harshly for losing this one. Hell I’m not even going to judge Emery too harshly….. Not the set up I would have gone with personally but no way of knowing if the 4-3-3 would have worked either or if it would just have left us more open and vulnerable at the back.
Sensible comment
I was so surprised why he left those sub’s so late.
It was clear Emery gambled on this match
Had he gambled, he would have used a more attacking tactic
He instructed most of his outfield players to stay behind and to play very narrow instead, to invite Liverpool into our half and to launch counter-attacks by using long passes to Aubameyang/ Pepe
So much talk about high pressing, yet he didn’t dare to implement it at Anfield. I bet he was worried that high pressing in Liverpool’s half would open more spaces for Liverpool to attack
Am not disappointed at the result as a predicted a 3:1 Liverpool win. To me I have been saying this game came rather so soon. What I don’t understand is why he didn’t do something about the game tactics and substitution a man who did half time changes most time last season waiting till 80 minutes to bring laca till a point I was thinking laca was injured
The tactics he used in the first half would have been so much better with someone capable of holding the ball. I think lacazette is a handful and he should have started.
A lot has been said about the game at Anfield I have to say that if you are going to play the European champions at Anfield.. your last option should be to contain.. poor tactics.. I saw the possibility of Arsenal winning Liverpool it was clear but Unai Emery gave that game away.. I don’t rate him anymore I will like to see a gung-ho coach come in and take over.. I remember when klopp came to Liverpool they started the attacking game and they have moved on well Arsenals potential is in its attack and Emery goes to Liverpool to take a punishment.. Emery is not good enough.. I still prefer David Luiz to any other CB in Arsenal.. p.s
Dan, I thought Guendozi was error prone and didn’t deserve your MOTM.
How error prone was he in the Liverpool game? Common man,let’s give that lad a credit for his performance. I saw him put away potential goal from Salah when he threw up himself into a ball Salah was to shoot. My gross in that lost was to Emery to have left Laca on the bench until the 80th minutes,Laca would have made a great difference if he had started or came on earlier. Don’t really know what Emery smoke at times,he caused us the game in my humble opinion.
Xhaka is not a fighter. I wld have gone with Torriera instead.Xhaka,like Ozil don’t perform in away games, especially tough or big name oppositions.The manager shld show us that he has d tactical and technical know- how to optimize d obvious potential in this team.If we work harder(fitness and tactically blend well)with focus and humility ;the odds can be surmounted.
UE doesn’t have a first eleven, philosophy and the heart to take risks.Very soon he will lose the dressing room as the likes of Laca and Toreirra who should be bona-fide first teamers are getting frustrated by our clueless manager and running out of patience. We can’t afford to wait until the damage is done.
He unay doesnt have even plan b
If we are to be honest and tell the truth, whatever low marks we give the players we must give the coach…manager….boss, whatever name we give him, a big fat 0….Zero…Nothing. To invite a team like Liverpool on to you deserves a medal for Wallyship. The **** of the year. It was the choice of a coward or idiot I can’t differentiate. To lose by playing Ceballos wide, without Lacazette (Auba, Laca, Pepa) or Torreira and with his deluded captain Xhaka was tactically actually giving in. To play out when you are being pressed! ?????. What an idiot. Emery in one fell swoop has lost my support. Cowardice cannot win anything.
The guy wearing the arsenal top with tierney on the back at Celtic is a Legend. They’re raging on Twitter ??
Quality!!! ? Just saw it… i wonder if he made it out of the ground in one piece!!
We may have a better shot at home with 5 back with Bellerin and Tierney both able to push the ball up and cover opposing wing backs.
Midfield seems our weakest point, if we had 3 midfielders who were good at marking, ball movement and passing into space, then we could run two strikers up top.
Maybe that can be addressed. In the January window.
Spurs losing to Newcastle
Congrats to Arsenal women on thrashing the spud women 6-0!!
Just got home from eating out.. to see Newcastle are 1 up.. and City won 3-1 woohoo!!!
But why did Anthony Taylor the match referee not call the VVD foul when he lifted Guandouzi off to make space for Matip to head the ball into the back of the Arsenal net? And if he claimed he didn’t see the foul incident, what of his assistant(linesman) who is naming the touch-line? He too didn’t see the VVD fouling Guandouzi in the box? Okay, if the match referee and his linesman both missed seeing the foul which is unlikely, what of the the people at the Video Assistant Referees VAR? Or should I say the Video Assistant Rigging? Ills decision made by match officiating officials does negatively impact on the outcome of the result of a match for the team at the receiving end of it. So therefore, the match officiating officials and the VAR who officiated the big game between Liverpool and Arsenal yesterday contributed to Arsenal losing the match. And this is a fact. But why did the Gunners not protest to the match referee vehemently after the lifting of Guendouzi by VVD for Matip to head the ball incident? Which if they had done, could force Anthony Taylor to review the VAR. Keeping quiet when one should complain can be harmful.
Dude you should know by now that EPL officiating is very biased and corrupt
As it happened I was screaming for VAR as Gwen Dozy was definitely fouled.
Every other goal scored has been looked at by VAR.
VAR also missed the VVD shirt pull on Pepe down in their box…. Just as soft and evident as the Luiz one yet we get fekk all for it ?♂️
I don’t agree with you .he was very average like the rest ofthe team.
He does do a lot of running but was very mediocre yesterday
Luiz directly at fault for 2 goals yet gets the same rating as Sokratis? I’m very confused?
if it were any other Arsenal defender they’d be given a 2. David Luiz was terrible & he only has been getting a pass because he is new to the squad. Not an improvement on anything we didn’t already have. Chambers should honestly be given a start over one of Sokratis or Luiz. Because together those two do not look convincing at all. Chambers has put in the best CB performance out of the three games we’ve played.
The formation was wrong, If he Emery had planned to defend most of the time, he should’ve gone with the three at the back with Luiz moving up to partner Torreira. Arsenal had all the entire team having to play defensive roles who were just not trained to do so. Hence the team was pinned to their own half. Play more defenders and allow the forwards to do what they are trained to do, thus move the ball forward to score. Emery should move Luiz a little forward with a role to move the ball out to the defenders more of a mdefensive midfielder but assisting the back two when necessary. He is more adapt to playing that role.
Hopefully Spurs play like this next weekend!!
What a day, Will!! Both teams won ?
Pepe was by far our MOTM.
You could see that he was the only player trying….. the rest were just jogging around. REALLY EMBARRASSING SCENES YESTERDAY, especially by GUENDOUZI.
I have to admit there’s not a huge gulf of talent between Arsenal and Liverpool.
The only difference is that Arsenal simply do not mark (the Guendouzis just jog around waiting for things to happen) and secondly, our passing is just school-boy; slow, sideways and with ZERO conviction.
Well you must be watching some other match then, guendouzi covered a lot of ground n was literally playing as RB. He made good interceptions as well n his link up play was good. Dont believe than should have listened to Gary Neville. The tactics were all wrong. This is not the first time UE always goes defensive against top 5 away. He needs to trust the players. Why invest so much money in attack when the football you play us defensive. I dont see klopp or pep doing this, UE is a small club manager in a big club. We need a big manager who has personality n can cascade that through the squad. If the manager does not believe you can win then the team wont either.
Sorry Guendouzi is rubbish. MOTM my arse. Poor game.