Kevin Whitcher
There were protests outside the stadium before the game about the price of tickets for Grade A matches, with a number of away supporters deliberately delaying their entrance for the first 10 minutes of the match. A banner expressing similar sentiments (“£5bn and what do we get? £64 a ticket”) was held up across the divide between Gooners and some Scousers who did get in for the start when the teams came out.
On this occasion, Arsenal fans for once would have felt they got their money’s worth for a top price match, although the Liverpool faithful would have taken a very different view.
Brendan Rodgers’ side were without Steve Gerrard and Martin Skrtl, with Daniel Sturridge confined to the bench until the game was decided for all intents and purposes. That the first two absences were self-inflicted will have been rued by their manager as the re-jig required made them a far poorer team than they might have been, not least due to the need to field Kolo Toure as one of their centre backs. The former Arsenal defender had a nightmare and his former team took full advantage.
The opening period was all Arsenal, with high pressing and plenty of chances created as a consequence, the best of which was passed up by Aaron Ramsey, unconvincing on his left foot. The Welshman was played on the right side of attack to accommodate himself, Cazorla, Alexis and Ozil in the same starting eleven, whilst allowing Ozil and Sanchez to alternate the advanced midfield role. Danny Welbeck was on the bench due to the knee injury he’d picked up on England duty, but Ramsey’s movement from his position did the team no harm and kept Liverpool guessing. The one thing that yesterday confirmed is how fluid Arsenal can be when they are on their game. The interchanging made them very difficult to contain.
Liverpool then came back into the game and Arsenal were fortunate not to have gone a goal down when Markovic and Sterling construed to miss a simple chance. There were concerns about Sterling’s pace exposing Mertesacker if he were isolated against him, but by and large, the German had a solid enough game.
The ten minutes before the interval saw the game decided with some wonderful finishing from Arsenal. All three goals were sumptuous strikes, all beating Mignolet on his right side. Two of them were struck from outside the area, demonstrating that Wenger’s players have the ability to score from distance, and it would be nice to see them attempt from range more often. Bellerin’s strike was inside the area, and if Aaron Ramsey were as two-footed as the young Spaniard, he would have surely scored in the opening spell. I was sitting next to the Highbury Spy for this game and he informed me that Barcelona were eyeing up Bellerin as a replacement for Dani Alves. Let’s hope the youngster does not have his head turned. On form, Mathieu Debuchy will have to wait a while before returning, so it will be interesting to see what the manager does with these two players. I predict a bit of rotation with Debuchy playing the bigger games. It’s a nice problem to have.
The second half was predictably a less intense affair from Arsenal’s viewpoint. A case of job done, with injuries to Koscielny and Ramsey meaning changes, and the entrance of Flamini allowing Liverpool to attack more with a resultant penalty giving hope after Bellerin was undone by Sterling’s quickness of feet.
Ospina almost saved it, but the subsequent dismissal of Emre Can largely killed any hope of a comeback. Olivier Giroud sealed things with a pearler missed by the early leavers at the death. I’m uncertain where so many people needed to be after a game that finished before 3pm. It was the third goal hit from outside the box and again beat the Liverpool keeper on his right side.
It capped an authoritative performance from Wenger’s team, and delightful as it is to see the team in such great form, there is also reflection about what might have been if the defensive side of things had been sorted out properly last summer. It’s good that the likes of Bellerin and Monreal have improved so much, but the learning curve for these two (the latter as an emergency centre back) unquestionably cost points. Calum Chambers was used far more than he should have been. If the title were decided on games between January and December, Arsenal would have won it in 2013 and look a good bet for this calendar year. But they need to get it right from August to May. The recent run demonstrates this is a squad good enough to challenge credibly for the title, and it must be hoped that the confidence of this sequence builds further so that next season Arsenal can, for once, have a genuine season-long go at winning the league for the first time since 2004.
What we saw against Liverpool yesterday was worthy of champions. Just a shame they left themselves too much to do with the results back in the autumn. Still, onwards and upwards. The FA Cup and a top three place would signify improvement, and managing to beat Mourinho’s Chelsea in three weeks’ time would be the icing on the cake to set the team up for 2015/16.
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
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Further Reading
A sequel to Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub and entitled Arsène and Arsenal The Quest to Rediscover Past Glories has been written by myself and co-author Alex Fynn. It takes up the story of the club from the last update of the previous book, and can be bought online here. Use the promo code ‘Gooner’ to get 10% off the publisher’s price of £8.99.
