LONDON — That Arsenal are the most efficient non-possession group in Europe has been evident for some time. To their complete praise, the back four have a charisma that is not now perceived in those parts from the back four. They love to protect and so do the six in front of them.
In all likelihood they love it too much. Arsenal plays as a group with a two-goal advantage when their supremacy is only one. Sit deep, let the waves crash over us, what we now have, we accumulate. More often than not they accumulate. Indeed, for the first 36 minutes of the second phase, this battered backline, held together by what Mikel Arteta could lift off the bench, seemed delighted to be able to do this.
The closest came with a pass judged to perfection by Trent Alexander-Arnold and a cross so serene that Darwin Núñez was only able to play games with Mohamed Salah. That’s what Liverpool was all about in terms of attribute possibilities, even at a time when rank and ownership shifted in their direction. It used to be all they had to fuel their four-point cushion over the Gunners.
There was some irony in that Liverpool’s second equalizer came from a huge numerical advantage through Arsenal. If Gabriel Martinelli had stayed out of what used to become a six again, perhaps they could have held on. But if the mistake hadn’t come at this rate, there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t have done it against Newcastle, Chelsea or Inter. Arsenal are too right, even against the most efficient opposition, to let things pass by as visible to probability as they do when they sit in a one-goal supremacy.
The mitigating elements appear incessantly. Arsenal had gone into this match without their press officer and creative center in Martin Odegaard. And the two most convincing options to start again on the left against Salah. And one of the best central defenders on the planet. They lost each other with almost any part of the second part performed. From Gabriel and William Saliba to Ben White and Jakub Kiwior, flanked by his second-choice defensive midfielder (Thomas Partey) and an 18-year-old box-to-box midfielder who Arteta is training to be a left-back (Myles Lewis-Skelly) . This is a clear endorsement from this club that that bottom line saved Salah et al from 6 useful images that were not up to an expected goal.
Now, not for the first performance of this season, you should feel that good luck is probably not on Arsenal’s side. Ibrahima Konate was lucky for more than a minute because Stockley Ground and Anthony Taylor who had received the ball to make Martinelli slide. Liverpool may also have been aggrieved at seeing an isolated kick given against them by Leandro Trossard kicking the ball into his own face, but that will no doubt be mixed with the ease that Taylor saw wrongdoing in one or either of the Kiwior and Kai duels. Havertz won outside the visiting field in the 90th minute. The ball was then scored by Gabriel Jesús, who was cautioned at the general whistle for his furious reaction to a corner wrongly awarded as a shot on target.
For all there is room for Arteta’s team to support, you shouldn’t blame him or anyone else for believing this could simply be Arsenal: the era of Murphy’s Law. Arteta refused to comment on the incidents that did not affect him, reserving his displeasure at the fact that his team failed to explode in decisive moments.
“Without conceding anything, we basically gave away two goals,” Arteta mentioned. “That’s the really frustrating part, and that we didn’t get to see the game, especially looking at ourselves and two things we didn’t do in certain aspects.”
A backline anchored by William Saliba and Gabriel could be ready for a flawless 90 minutes against the country’s best. It could simply be asking too much of Kiwior and Lewis-Skelly, who chased the ball when one had to chase Salah to earn Liverpool’s second equalizer. When Arsenal were down to their bones in defence, they couldn’t save Liverpool right at the other end. A few better touches from Martinelli and that could have changed, but too often it was him and a few assist riders trying to do everything themselves.
Frustration over what was possibly done to them mixes with what they themselves did or did not do. As Bukayo Saka said before the attack: “We feel like we didn’t show our best for the full 90 minutes.” However, for 45, they really did it.
His was usually an arrogant declaration of his superiority over the league leaders. Sound-wise, they seemed evidently splendid for their fighters. Declan Rice, as perfect as he has been this season, and Mikel Merino had the muscles to regulate the sound, helped by Havertz and Leandro Trossard losing deeply. That gave Arsenal time to isolate Liverpool’s full-backs. Barely 10 minutes passed before Andrew Robertson was apparently arguing with Virgil van Dijk, hands outstretched in frustration, as if to indicate what exactly he was supposed to do as Saka slid towards him. When White cut a cross over the reach to isolate his Deny. 7 with Robertson, the final result seemed inevitable. Even at full strength, Saka was going to outrun his man, get on his left base, and drill his space.
Arsenal simply looked forward until now. Not even Virgil van Dijk’s equalizer discouraged them. The hosts seemed to remember that even that chance had come from auxiliary right-back Partey doing well to close down ill Luis Díaz. Dominant in discoverable play, he stood on a useless ball that Rice saved by throwing crosses simply by asking for a bit. Mikel Merino had already deflected a length before pushing into space just before the intermission.
Arne Slot was undoubtedly inspired by what he saw.
“I think they can position themselves in [Arteta] once said, 40 different configurations. You prepare a game plan, you hope for something but you can’t tell your players 40 different options. You try to prepare them in the best possible way but now they play with a false nine, they didn’t come so many times with a full-back inside,” he mentioned.
“We could prepare [the team] A little better at half-time from what we saw in the first half. We took some more risks. The main thing was that we put more energy into it. We pushed them more aggressively from the beginning. I saw that we could also continue and they had to take out some of their quality players because they couldn’t continue. Maybe that helped us a little bit too.”
However, even before the replacement of Gabriel and Log, Arsenal were losing, just like they were against Leicester, Tottenham or even Wolves. They were probably too tired to keep going. Martinelli, for example, had entered the field again to help his left. Díaz and Salah had rarely done the same. Merino looked like a person who finished his first 90 minutes in 5 months. Two replacement windows were consumed when Gabriel and Log could no longer continue.
In such cases, it is difficult to shake the human intuition of thinking that I am sick, especially when you know that you are very good at it. No one, on the other hand, is ideal to form sitting on a single-objective supremacy, the rest is an all-powerful option.
