Arsenal vs. Liverpool: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

This was always Liverpool’s toughest remaining week of the season.

I feared two draws; two points, against teams who the Reds hadn’t beaten much lately, except on penalties. As bad as Chelsea can be, it’s not a game you can take lightly.

But remember, Liverpool are now just four games into the “turnaround” for the second half of the season, and no longer have to play Arsenal, Chelsea or Newcastle in the league.

All done. All sorted. (Ditto those tricky blighters Bournemouth.) That’s right, the turnaround has seen the Reds play Newcastle, Chelsea and Arsenal, and that means fewer tough games left, with just a couple of humdingers until the last three games of the season.

The four games since MW19 are a massive skew, yet Liverpool are still top of the league.

Arsenal won today with a mistake by Alisson, and then a defection that wrong-footed and nutmegged him, and the home team (plus homer ref) clearly had the better chances. Any time Liverpool broke, the Gunners’ defenders were all over the Reds’ attackers, and Anthony Taylor saw nothing, time and again. But he did see enough to send Ibrahima Konaté off, which would have been fair enough if the same things equalled bookings at both ends.

For the first yellow, Kai Havertz backed into Konaté, who then stood his ground. “Nothing really in that” said Gary Neville. Booking said Anthony Taylor. As with Jota’s two bookings at Spurs, it wasn’t even a foul. The way Arsenal players constantly held their face/nose even if the slight contact on their shoulder or arm didn’t help.

It’s hard to go to North London twice in a season and have three players sent off for very little, and the opponents escape various bookings all game long for anything but timewasting, or only once the score is 3-1 and there’s no time left.

What was a foul by Liverpool was not a foul by Arsenal. But this is Taylor away from Anfield, where he goes to extra lengths to punish (more Big Decisions against Liverpool than for Liverpool now). Darwin Núñez, Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz got nothing every time they were fouled.

To make it worse, as well as Mo Salah’s continued absence, the Reds’ pace, power and assists from recent games were missing due to injury, illness and a death of a parent.

This on the back of a Big Six clash in midweek, and it’s hard to keep the same side four days apart, with one crucial fewer day for recovery and preparation time that Arsenal had after an easier fixture.

Arsenal – the better team on the day (helped by Taylor) – are not a better team when everyone in both squads is fit. Still, Liverpool had a rare “homer” performance from Paul Tierney in midweek, as Manchester continues to ref pretty much every Liverpool match.

Arsenal were able to field stronger, faster players than the Reds today, while all three of the Reds fastest players were absent from the starting XI (and I don’t yet have a top speed clocked for Conor Bradley, who will likely be up there, as a fourth).

The two absolute speedsters are Darwin Núñez (unable to start due to a foot injury) and Dominik Szoboszlai (illness), with Salah now down to third-fastest.

As I said, Bradley will be up there too, and only get quicker over the next 2-3 years. This is the one game where he was needed (as he showed in the cup), but my thoughts go out to him at a time of personal loss. Shitty timing, but far more important than a game of football.

All of the three strikers the Reds started with are mid-paced, and none is a right-sided attacker. Ben Doak could have got some vital minutes this past month with Salah away and then injured, but he’s been injured too; another speedster, in a game where Arsenal’s pace in wide areas was telling.

Still, top of the league. League Cup final ahead. Still in the FA Cup. Still in the Europa League. (If you’re really angry now, then maybe find another sport, as you’ve been spoilt.)

It’s hard to make too much sense of the game as Liverpool were lacking the dynamism that the team requires; Núñez came on as a sub, but had a badly injured foot, and any time he tried to run in behind they rugby tackled him anyway. Then he’d be penalised.

I’ll try and make sense of what I can, in what is not an unexpected setback to me (shit happens).

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