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.