Arsenal fell 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield in a match where they did enough to earn at least a draw. They were every bit as good as Liverpool and probably a touch better, not an easy thing to do at Anfield. As Mikel Arteta said after the match, when you’ve got two really good teams playing well, it takes an individual mistake or a moment of brilliance to make the difference. Liverpool got their moment of brilliance on Dominik Szoboszlai’s free kick. Several of Arsenal’s difference-makers missed the match through
injury. Just once, I’d love for a close to full-strength Arsenal side to get a crack at Liverpool. So far, we’ve not gotten that chance.
Arsenal played really well in the first half, especially with William Saliba being forced off in the fourth minute with a twisted ankle sustain in warmups. They did not let Liverpool run free and create the chaos they thrive on and held them to no shots on target in the opening 45 minutes. Arsenal kept trying to draw Liverpool onto them in the final and middle third, looking to break the press with a quick vertical pass or a long ball targeting the space behind the fullback. Noni Madueke, in particular was bright. He gave Milos Kerkez lots of problems but couldn’t find the killer touch. Gabriel Martinelli did not have the same success on the left, which is disappointing given he was up against makeshift right back Dominik Szoboszlai.
Madueke picked up where he left off to start the second half, most of Arsenal’s threat to open the second 45 came down his wing. You’d like to see more from Gabriel Martinelli on the left, but if you told me Martinelli would have a quiet day and in exchange, Mo Salah would be anonymous at Anfield, I’d take that exchange in a heartbeat. The Brazilian does a thankless job tracking back.
Liverpool had the ball in the back of the net midway through the half, but Hugo Ekitike was well offside on the move. David Raya made a solid initial save on the attack and the French striker wouldn’t have gotten to the rebound first but for being two or three yards offside. If anyone tries to talk about “Raya was saved from fouling Ekitike by the offside flag” tell them to pipe (and sit) down. The striker is only in position to get to the rebound first because he’s well offside.
The match started to open up around the 60th minute, and Liverpool looked to benefit from it. With the play quickening, there was more space to play and run through. Subbing on Martin Odegaard and Ebere Eze helped Arsenal calm things down.
But it wasn’t enough. Around the 80th minute, Martin Zubimendi gave away a foul in the middle of the field, about 30 yards from goal. Dominik Szoboszlai hit it fantastically well, perfectly in fact, glancing it in off the post. We didn’t get a replay on the broadcast, but it looked to me as if Declan Rice kept the ball in on the far side about a minute before the goal. Liverpool had the ball and eventually won the free kick off the back of that.
I thought Ebere Eze was going to have his moment late on when he broke into the Liverpool box and in on goal. Unfortunately, the pull-back and nudge in the back from the defender was enough to knock him off balance without getting whistled for a foul. You’ve seen those given, but today, the referee was rather lenient with his whistle. The calls weren’t the difference in the match, which is a refreshing change.
Sidenote: I would like to start seeing red cards for what Wataru Endo did to Viktor Gyokeres (I think) deep into stoppage time. Arsenal were going to break away and he wrestled him to the ground from behind to stop the counter. That’s not football and it’s likely to get someone hurt. It’s not a red card in the rules as written, mind you. But I think it should be. One yellow for a professional foul to stop a counter, one yellow for the reckless challenge itself. Get that junk out of the game.
David Raya had a really strong match, his positioning and willingness to be quick off his line stopped several Liverpool attacks before they started. Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi were excellent, as well. They controlled the middle of the pitch and, for the most, part dictated the tempo of play. Cristhian Mosquera, after looking a bit nervous when he initially came on, played really well. Arsenal need more from Viktor Gyokeres, but we knew that his record against top clubs wasn’t scintillating. Kai Havertz would have been a much better option in a match like this — he’s better suited to these matches because of his technical quality.
You can’t really be too upset about that result, honestly. Arsenal were probably slightly the better side and went down to a worldie of a free kick. Szoboszlai probably scores that once every one-hundred times he takes that. The Gunners generated a touch more xG and had nearly twice the number of touches in the Liverpool box as the home side had in theirs.
But the common refrain from so-called analysts was the Liverpool went for it and Arsenal didn’t. That simply wasn’t the match that I watched. I’m not going to take Arsena to task for not having quite enough at the attacking end playing without Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka and only getting 20ish minutes from Martin Odegaard and Ebere Eze. All while trying to make sure they don’t expose Mosquera, who was getting his first taste of significant minutes at Anfield.
I really and truly don’t know what people want. Arsenal went to Anfield, a place they haven’t won in the Premier League since 2012, and played at least as well as the current title-holders. They shut down Liverpool’s vaunted attack. Do you want them to play an open, run-and-gun game, concede two or three goals, and then have to match that while missing their best attacking players?!
That’s a very annoying match to lose, especially with how well Arsenal played. But that’s what happens sometimes. It’s a cruel sport. That’s the only takeaway from this match — football happens. These is basically nothing to separate these two sides, and I’ll take some comfort that Arsenal played them even missing several important players. I would have really liked a point, though.
The international break will be a welcome respite for the Gunners, who just three matches into the season, need the time to get healthy. The schedule doesn’t get any easier when play resumes in two weeks.
