Mikel Arteta said it as it is. The gap is huge and we need to spend! by Konstantin Mitov
Ah lovely Arsenal people, football is a funny thing. For the course of the season we’ve always been the team making the stupid mistakes, but this time Liverpool pulled an Arsenal and simply gifted us 2 goals, which eventually won us the game.
It’s really nice to beat them for the first time since Klopp arrived there, but what Mikel Arteta said after the game is what I enjoyed most. He said the gap between the two teams is enormous and he was spot on.
He said we’ve closed the gap in terms of desire to play and you can see a bit more fight in the side, but quality-wise we’re miles apart and need heavy investment. When asked if the money will be there, he said he doesn’t know.
That’s all you need to know. We can analyse games and individual performances, but these set of players are here for some time now and this is the continuous result. This is their 3rd permanent manager and some traits never go away.
This is a Liverpool team that’s dropped points a few times now since the restart, but honestly with the lead in points they had, you can get it. For Liverpool the one real issue was the league title they waited for 30 years for. Now it’s here and the 100 points, although nice, don’t really mean that much.
This win will boost a little confidence ahead of City. Lacazette scored again and Nelson had a really good game. Holding and Tierney looked better than Mustafi and Kolasinac, who made me so depressed when he came on.
But we looked resilient defensively and made no nonsense clearances, and we made ourselves difficult to beat and took our chance. I think we had 3 shots all game and if Willock had put it right we might even have scored a third.
But this is a one game performance. What I understood from his post match interview is “I’ve done what I can with those players and I need better material”.
Now, it’s up to the board to back him. With Partey now looking unlikely, I’m worried. We need a massive overhaul in defense and midfield.
I’m not getting hopes up too high for City. It’s a game that matters for something and we’re well known for crumbling in those. Not that we haven’t beaten them in an FA cup semi-final before, but they will not have the foot off the gas.
Don’t get me wrong, the FA cup would be lovely for sure, although Chelsea or Man Utd will be no easy task if we get past City, but whatever happens we should be as honest as Arteta was. We need massive investment in quality. It’s up to the board to show ambition now.
Konstantin
