This is what we’ve been missing for some years now. We’ve seen teams play poorly against us and still walk away with a positive result. Some might say it was down to poor luck, but it is important to remember that you make your own luck in football.
Yesterday’s win over Liverpool showed the difference a clinical striker and an inspired goalkeeper can make. Arsenal were never in the game throughout but scored two goals, despite only three clear cut chances. As long as you are in the game, a striker like Robin van Persie can always produce the unthinkable. Simple.
Tactically, Arsene Wenger decided to go with the same 11 that started against Spurs last Sunday. It was surprising because Tomas Rosicky, Thomas Vermaelen and Van Persie were reportedly carrying knocks, and most of the starting 11 had played midweek. We could see right from kick off that our players were a bit jaded and it affected our pressing when the opponents had the ball.
Arsenal saw very little of the ball early on. Liverpool pressed and harried the Gunners and forced the mistakes out of our game. Yossi Benayoun couldn’t repeat his efficient performance against Spurs because Martin Kelly marked him out of the game. Benayoun didn’t move well enough to shake off his marker and in the few occasions he got the ball, Kelly was up to the task. This meant Arsenal were realistically one player short. Benayoun’s work rate was missing and Liverpool had a lot of space down that left flank to have a go at Kieran Gibbs.
Liverpool also piled the pressure on Bacary Sagna, with Stewart Downing running hard at him and Luis Suarez drifting wide to keep Sagna on his toes. Sagna proved why he is Arsenal’s best defender overall as he was not once overrun by Liverpool, but it affected the attacking aspect of his game. He had to stay back to stop Liverpool’s forays and this meant Theo Walcott didn’t have the support upfront when he got the ball. He didn’t have quick passing options so had no choice but to dribble out of the way. But we all know how good a dribbler he is but his close control was awful. He kept running over the ball so often that it seemed to me that he was content on beating Jose Enrique even if the ball wasn’t at his feet!
