Kieran tierney – CONFESSIONS OF A (NOT-SO) YOUNG GOONER

Better?

Most would agree that we looked the better side before Heung-min Son’s long-range curler hit the back of the net. Bellerin, Saka, and Tierney are to be credited for at least trying to get the ball into the box throughout the match. Willian–who played his first full 90 since Week Four–also looked more dangerous than he has in awhile. That said, many of their final balls were behind their intended targets. Forget quality, our boys are in desperate need of a bit of luck–a deflection, a fortunate bounce of the ball, anything–to rebuild their clearly broken confidence going forward.

After Partey

Other than his being dispossessed by Giovani Lo Celso at one point, I would have argued that Thomas was our best player before he was forced off due to injury. Not only did he do his usual work breaking up play in the middle of the park, but he also tried to get forward either with the ball at his feet or via a searching ball or two ahead to teammates. Perhaps it speaks more to José Mourinho’s tendency to park the bus once his sides have a lead, but who would have thought that we would have kept Spurs scoreless (and no shots on goal in the second half) without Thomas on the pitch? Let’s hope he is truly fit sometime soon, because I still contend that his presence in the midfield is critical for any sustained success that we may have this season.

Title Pretenders

Gooners’ wildest hopes of competing for a Premier League title faded fairly early this season, but I suspect we were not the only faux title-chasers in today’s match. While no one expected a different result today, can Spurs concede this much possession against higher quality, more confident opposition and expect to consistently win? How many times out of ten does Son make that shot? How often does Harry Kane score top-shelf near-left post with his left foot? Does anyone really believe this version of Spurs has more quality than they did during the 2018/19 season, which included nine players who featured in the semis of the 2018 World Cup (i.e., Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembélé, Eric Dier, Kane, Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier, and Jan Vertonghen)? That Spurs side made the Champions League final, but alas, ended up trophy-less across all competitions. What will be telling is how this Spurs side responds when they hit the inevitable rough patch this season and Mourinho starts publicly blaming his players as he is wont to do.

I Would Have Gotten Away With It . . .

Admit it, in the third minute of the match, you too thought (hoped?) Sadio Mane would be sent off for illegal use of hands to the face of Kieran Tierney. Mane and Liverpool’s chances of winning all three points would have been the latest casualties of the all-unforgiving VAR. But alas, VAR did not intervene, Mane was awarded (rewarded with?) a yellow, and the sphincters of Liverpool supporters everywhere unclenched in unison.

Go ahead – Admit it. After Mane’s rocket of a shot from point blank range in the box landed directly in the welcome arms of Bernd Leno and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s more speculative shot from distance deflected off a cringing Hector Bellerin and into the woodwork, you too began to think (hope?) that perhaps this was not Liverpool’s day.

And then the unthinkable happened. After a brilliant move against the run of play, Alexandre Lacazette scuffed a shot past the diving Alisson. 1-0 to the Arsenal. Tactical genius of the week Mikel Arteta had his counter-attacking mojo working once again.

. . . If It Weren’t For Those Meddling Kids

But less than three minutes later, Liverpool finally found the back of the net. And as they say, the rest is history. Strangely enough, today’s final stats were eerily similar those in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over the then newly-crowned champions in July. However, this time around Liverpool were not playing fresh off the hangover (both literally and figuratively) of winning the league, when in July’s match both Alisson and Virgil Van Djik made David Luiz-esque errors that the Gunners clinically pounced on that day. While I did not expect us to win today’s match, I also did not expect such a passive effort (e.g., we had just over half as many tackles today vs. in July’s league match). That said, the fact that we were still in the match until the 88th minute–when Liverpool newcomer Diogo Jota tacked on a goal after a poor clearance from Luiz–at least in part says something about the renewed spirit of Arsenal under Arteta.

More Questions Than Answers

Why did Gabriel not feature today? Honestly, I watched nearly the entire match in fear that at some point Luiz would take down at least one of Liverpool’s front three. How many times can you allow one of the best sides in the world to have that much possession and expect to win? A couple of incisive balls today from substitute Dani Ceballos exposed the cracks in Liverpool’s backline, so perhaps a bit more of an attacking edge was warranted (e.g., even newly-promoted Leeds put three past the champions in Week One of this season). How do we get Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang more touches in the final third? One can’t help but wonder what if the chances that Lacazette fluffed today had instead fallen to the more clinical Auba. Do we really have to be so dogmatic about playing out from the back? We dodged more than a few bullets today in Liverpool’s final third (e.g., when Rob Holding had his pocket picked by Mane on the edge of the box). How will our boys respond with winless Sheffield United up next in the league? The Blades will be desperate to pick up their first points of the year, and with City, undefeated Leiceister, and United to follow (gee thanks, Prem scheduling gods), we can’t afford to drop points against lesser competition if we hope to return to the Champions League next season.