Well, it’s going to be a tough day.
Southampton didn’t do us a favour and allowed Manchester City to bring the point difference to 5 points. We are visiting Anfield, one of the worst place to play at. Klopp, in his previous game against City, benched Salah, Trent, Robertson and Gakpo; four players who are well rested and eager to prove a point today!? Worst of all, Liverpool are sitting at 8th, and are in a battle of Champions League spot. They are wounded and Klopp with all this negative press against him will be eager to prove the doubters wrong.
But hey, we have one of the best teams on the planet currently, playing some wonderful football and on any given day, we can cause trouble to any team. It’s a title race for us, much important than what Liverpool’ is playing for. Arteta and the players wouldn’t have forgotten the embarrassment from our last visit and Martinelli is going to cause havoc today. And we have Trossard, who scored a hat-trick against Liverpool with Brighton, so you never know.
Saka is back from the illness which didn’t allow him to start against Leeds last week. We still have doubts about Eddie Nketiah and William Saliba, Arteta refused to provide any specific details about their injuries, it could be either tactical or the situation hasn’t improved yet. I don’t care about the Pool’s players.
It’s going to a battle of the midfield. We were stronger defensively if Saliba was available but then VVD is doubtful too, which makes it even. Our front three is better than them, though Salah is world class and has knack of scoring against us. We have a functioning midfield in Odegaard, Partey and Xhaka and if they play to their forms today, we could come up with a point at minimum from Anfield. I want to see us winning though, we haven’t won in our last 7 visits and we need to change it. TODAY.
Right, so what are we excited for? We are top of the league. Bukayo is back and he loves to score / assist against top 6. Gabriel Jesus is back and scored couple goals. Ben White is playing some delicious football, Gabriel is a monster and Zinchenko is a nuisance for any manager. Partey is our dark horse, no non-sense football, don’t care about limelight and don’t need the praises – just let me do my work and go back to sleep. Xhaka made me eat a humble pie, I hope he makes the size of that pie a bit bigger today. Our captain is in form, Martinelli will eat Trent for breakfast. Only concern for us is Holding v Nunez. If Holding can keep it calm today, we are winning guys.
I don’t see much changes with Jesus starting at top with Martinelli and Saka on the wings. A midfield of Partey, Odegaard and Xhaka will do. Ben at RB, Gabriel and Holding pairing for CB and Zinchenko at LB.
We have a strong bench of Trossard, Vieira, Tierney, Nelson. Tired legs will be replaced but that’s all on the game progress. I see us stealing a 0-1 win today, breaking the Anfield curse and reaching a bit closer the trophy.
See you during the game. #COYG
Tony-because he’s only thinking of defensive replacements and we have no one he trusts, minus maybe Tierney
I agree with the player coming on – not player coming off.
What the fuck with Ode coming off?
holy shit that’s a concerning double-switch…I guess Xhaka’s got to throw an armband to the ground and give the supporters the bird in order to get subbed off…but whom in their right mind would ever do that???
The ref just discovered time wasting.
Fucking prick.
Feels like the mind fuckingly slowest 45 minutes of my life
Trossard’s got to take that defender on, especially considered how spread out they were and he was 1 v. 1
considering
It was always coming
Arteta can’t make a sub to save his fucking life.
Carragher saying the title’s back in City’s hands – no it’s not.
We’re going to have a good 5 or 6 minutes added on.
it was only a matter of time when you deploy such negative tactics
COME ON ARSENAL!!!
just like MA, TIerney comes on to protect the tie…no thought whatsoever about actually setting up to secure all 3…it’s all on the players to find a way in spite of the gutless manager
Fuck sake
It’s clear Arteta doesn’t trust his subs. We were being overrun all over the field and Arteta did nothing to change our play.
Arteta snatching a draw from the jaws of victory.
That aside Ramsdale was excellent. Plenty of other players very very good today.
Xhaka is and has always been a liability.
Exhausted. What a game…
Kroenke
Its not healthy.
good on Ramsdale, but it’s difficult to watch an affair where the greatest moments for us in the whole of the second half involved our Keeper’s ability to not allow Pool to score 3 unanswered goals and leave us without a point…based on what I witnessed the match turned on a dime when Xhaka showed his true colours and we were very fortunate that we weren’t on the receiving end of an embarassing 4or 5-2 comeback defeat
Well, that complicates things up for us for the rest of the season. Against City, it becomes a must win now. They have a higher goal difference, easy run of fixtures and the only team that can fight them is us.
Irrespective of ‘we should have won’, getting away from Anfield with a point counts as a positive.
Onwards and upwards.
Tony got it right. Arteta cannot perceive or is too scared to change.
Xhaka with his arseholery around 40 minutes git Liverpool charged up. Before that they were just Dumstuck.
Zinchenko defensive liability were apparent before the 2nd Liverpool goal. His substitutions were just one to one without changing the dynamics.
No doubt we are going to be be in CL is time for Arteta to go. He is too limited for Europe where the game is more sophisticated.
Looks like Saliba with the mysterious back has made his point. Our defense is hanging by a slender thread of Gabriel Magalhães
I’m struggling to process that. Blowing a 2-0 lead was dumb granted, but Liverpool really stepped it up. I think we could have been more intelligent tactically (the game was scarily open throughout) and I agree with all of you that the substitutions were fucking poor. Our front three worked sooo hard to establish that lead. Partey grew as the game wore on but didn’t fully impose himself. Just a tough fucking game against a team who decided to turn up after being shite against Chelsea. Was it 2013 when we last got any points there?
Ragsdale saved our bacon. We wouy have left with no point.
Gapko plays like a type of house luzard – is pointless.
Klopp needs to physically kick the butt of Darwin Nunez. Very talented but given to showboating. But unlike Anthony of the same genre, who is too slow to be effective, Darwin hammered into shape can be a goal machine. Has a serious location of the goal syndrome. Surprised Klopp is oblivious
For a neutral who didn’t watch the game, 2-2 at Anfield sounds like a win. But we were 2-0 up, and then blew it away because we lost the composure. There were about 20min before and after first half time when the ball didn’t move out of our halves. Not good for my heart man.
I’m gutted, but then having 6 points lead than 5 gives us some advantage. A loss against City will ruin it up though since we are low on goal difference.
I have had my heart in my mouth.
And, we need a Xhaka upgrade!
You’re right Ambarish but it’s the manner in which we caved in and we’re backs to the wall from the 38th minute onwards. Arteta couldn’t work out what to do because he had no plan B.
I’m adamant that a 352 tactical formation excluding Xhaka (for Trossard) would have kept the battle to the midfield and beyond. Why ffs when Fabinho and 3 of the back 4 were on yellows didn’t we press them?
Arteta was the architect of our draw and loss of points today. City looks, on today’s showing, to be an even tougher game than todays’. It’s still in our hands, but don’t hold your breath on City dropping points in their last 9 games.
Once again Artetas selection and non existent in-game management has been severely lacking at a cost when we can ill afford to drop points.
Saka looked real bugged and frustrated towards thee end. Anyone could see any reason?
Injured?
Hoopah
It was probably his pass towards the end when no one was there to receive it. Should have been a goal.
Hoopah junior and I love your words and reasoning. Same for you Ambarish. You both should post more often. 🙂
thet was the gameplan of a manager who couldn’t even fathom the possibility that we could find ourselves two goals up, so as he’s prone to do he adopted his preferred turtling tactical approach for the vast majority of the remaining time…we will never get over the hump until his testicles final drop and he doesn’t get in the way of a good thing…of course, Xhaka’s untimely stupidity further complicated matters, as I think if we had started Trossard in his stead we might have potted a goal or two more before Pool went all caution to the wind
Tony
Yes, that second half wasn’t pleasing at all. Trossard should have come early, Kiwior was not needed.
Hoopah, Saka was devoid of support and having to come deeper to pick up the ball of defend. We basically lost our confidence after Xhaka got his yellow and changed the game for Pool. When we play our sublime football Saka has at least 2 of Ode, White and Jesus to play off in tight spaces.
After about 40 minutes Saka was left to fend for himself and defend alone; something Pepe had to put up with. We didn’t nullify Fabinho by man man marking and we didn’t keep pressure on Pool’s FBs. Doing so would have pulled the 2 CBs out to cover and left gaps in the middle as Pool did to us keeping us scrambling in blind panic.
RVL
The idiocy of Arteta is amplified by his bring it in Kvylor our junior defender in this game. Akin luke leading a lamb to slaughter. Or more precisely Arteta tactics are drawing straws out of his hat?
That was pointless against Liverpool
Agreed, Ambarish. Time to cool down enough to sleep. I’ll leave the post game post to your good self. Mine would not be pleasant regarding the lack of tactical nous and repeated shite squad management.
We got lucky to salvage a very ugly looking point. Good night lads. zzz
Tony
Think you got the Saka frustation right. Yeah, recall him exerting in that run, throwing in everything. The pass was perfect even on the run beyond Allison. Tossard was well placed, but seemed going on a stroll. Didn’t even attempt pushing in. Yeah Saka wa totally off after that.
Thanks Tony
that was a perfect example of why this has been such an anomalous season for us, in that when faced with adversity against a determined side we don’t appear to be in it to win it…of course, we’ve sliced and diced a whole host of lesser lights, many of whom easily capitulated in the second half of their respective matches, but when we faced a team with goals in them and directness to boot, we’re too quick to sit deep and hope for the fucking best…in my estimation, until MA proves otherwise, he’s still at best a pretender, which kind of makes sense considering that his rather uneventful playing career did nothing to prepare him for the weightiness that invariably accompanies success at the highest of levels…it’s starting to feel like those Wenger Cup years when we were so reliant upon the failures of others
Hoopah-if that tactical MA shows up against City, or even away to Newcastle, we’re going to find ourselves on the losing end of things…in fact, if we were playing City today, that could have easily ended 6-2…btw I know why he played the Polish newbie, he already had Holding on the pitch, so he simply deployed his old cut and paste methodology and Kiwor was simply the next, or only, player on his defensive substitute list…Cheers
Ambarish
We don’t need to win against City a draw would be more than enough.
That though is a problem in itself as we have a negative manager who can’t fathom that a degree of attack is the best defence.
Just as a small point towards the Arteta fan boys – 2 nil up a against a Liverpool who have been hopeless all season should have lead to a win, a win against an Everton team who had just sacked their manager and we’re 11 points in front of City.
Even with City’s game in hand and us having to go there its season over.