There was a time not so long ago when a performance like this would have us all buzzing and we’d be talking about it for weeks. Now it’s just what we’ve come to expect. That’s the level this team have set for themselves.
It was only a few years ago we were looking up at Arsenal, aspiring to be at their level even though they themselves weren’t actually winning anything big. They were still superior to us though, as were Chelsea, Spurs and United. We’re light years ahead of all of them right now. Further ahead of them all than at any point since the 80s, so much so that I’d be surprised if any of you reading this actually thought Arsenal had a chance against us.
That’s not arrogance, it’s just common sense based on everything we’ve seen over the last couple of years.
Before the game I said to the lads that these are the days we need to savour because they don’t come around too often. For 30 years we’ve been struggling along aspiring to put together a team like we have now. Sometimes we got close but the window closed quickly. What we have now though, it’s truly special.
It’s mad though. You go on social media see people bitching about Wijnaldum or Henderson, or complaining that Lallana is getting five minutes at the end and using that as reason to kick off again about us not signing anyone. I feel as though what this team are achieving isn’t being fully appreciated by everyone.
In some ways I get it. It’s easy to get too wrapped up in the future; what might happen, what we want to happen and what we think needs to be done in order for it to happen. It’s understandable to a degree and I can’t deny that at times I’ve done it myself. But I watched the way we casually swatted Arsenal aside and I just feel that maybe we need to take time to stop and smell the flowers. You know what I mean? We’ve got it pretty fucking good right now.
What we’re being treated to currently is something we’ll look back on in years to come and maybe reflect on it as the best time of our football supporting lives. We probably need a title for that, or failing that another European Cup or two, but we will look back on these days, with all these spanking wins and great performances, and we’ll think “fucking hell, that was something else wasn’t it?”.
We haven’t seen this team lose at Anfield in well over two years. We’ve seen them play in two European Cup finals in as many years. We’re the current European Champions. We lost one game in the league all last season. We’ve won 12 straight league games. And we’ve done all that with a swagger and by playing incredible football. Not every game of course, sometimes the lads have just had to grind it out, like last week at Southampton.
Generally though, if you give Klopp a week to prepare for a game like this, you won’t be disappointed with what you see. Honestly, I knew we’d twat Arsenal. There was not the tiniest doubt in my mind. It’s not even a reflection on them either, well not much. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished third as they play good football and can score goals. My bravado was not about them and their glaring weaknesses, it was about how good this team of ours is right now.
Arsenal will finish somewhere between third and fifth this season. Under normal circumstances that means they’d be a tough opponent. You can’t take winning for granted against fellow top six sides, unless it’s Arsenal at Anfield. They just don’t match up well against us. The way we play, they literally have no chance against us at Anfield. We’re too fast, too intense, too clever and too talented. They can’t live with it and they know it.
That would explain Emery’s weird approach to the game. Much has been made of him going with a diamond, but it was more the tactics than than the system that surprised me. It seemed as though Arsenal wanted the game played in their final third. They weren’t interested in playing through midfield or getting men forward, they just packed eight outfield players in their final third and tried to pass it around in their own box.
It was bizarre. I couldn’t figure out what they were trying to do but all I can think is that the idea was to draw us onto them and then suddenly hit their front two to exploit their pace. It was highly risky but I sort of understand the logic.
I’m not tactical genius but I could see what was happening as it was obvious. When they had a goal kick both of our full backs were pushed right up the field which meant we matched their two strikers up man for man with Virgil and Joel. Pepe would then stand in the space left by Robbo, while Aubameyeng went to the opposite touchline. Van Dijk and Matip went with them, while Fabinho dropped into the space vacated in the middle. Everyone else was pressing them in the final third.
Arsenal were playing with fire but it almost worked. They had two breakaway chances in the first half that they wasted. One was when Adrian came out to deal with a situation he could have left to Van Dijk, and he put his clearance straight to Aubamayeng who thankfully failed to find the empty net with his 30 yard lob.
We had an even bigger let off when Hendo missed his kick and was robbed by the lightning quick Pepe, who raced clear and nicked the ball away from Robbo to go clean through on goal. His finish was dreadful though. Adrian did well to stand up and make the save, but it was a terrible miss and a huge let off for us.
Aside from those two moments it was complete and total dominance from us and the only disappointment was that it took so long to score. Even if Arsenal had taken one of those chances I still think we’d have smashed them everywhere as we just looked so confident and in control of the game.
I expect Emery will take some flak for it, but the way I look at it he just tried something different because doing the same thing wouldn’t have worked. Arsenal usually come here, play their own game and get absolute webbed all over Anfield. That’s why I was predicting a 5-1 win. If they try to do their thing against us they’ve got no chance.
Emery obviously knew that so he took a chance on trying something new. It didn’t work, but people need to understand here that this isn’t Arsenal “getting found out” and the game shoudn’t really change anyone’s perception of what they are or aren’t. We’re just miles better than them. There’s no shame in that, because we’re miles better than everyone other than City.
Arsenal were outplayed by arguably the best side in the world. If we’re not the best, we’re the second best, and the gap between us and Arsenal is massive right now. Without sounding patronising, 3-1 is decent scoreline for them, especially based on how the game went for 75 minutes. They could easily have been looking at four or five (like the previous couple of years), but then we eased off in the latter stages and they got one back to make it look a bit more respectable.
The way the game ended cast a slightly disappointing shadow over it, but halfway through that second half I was just sat there marvelling at just how strong this team of ours is. This was Arsenal, not some newly promoted side, yet it was men against boys. Right from the start.
I saw our starting line up and compared it with theirs and it was basically over even before it began. I thought maybe Arsenal would go with all three forwards and try to fight fire with fire. If it turned into a shoot out I’d still have backed us, but teams can get lucky as we saw with Spurs at City last week. Arsenal pose more danger than most.
Arsenal left Lacazette on the bench and yet even without the extra attacker I thought their side looked weak as fuck. Bringing in David Luiz to fix your defensive issues is like going on a chocolate only diet to solve a weight problem. I really like him as a footballer and maybe as the spare man in a back three he can be useful, but stick him in a back four against our forward line (or any forward line for that matter) and it’s not going to end well. That said, he is better than Mustafi so technically they have upgraded at the position.
The midfield looked lightweight too, and so it proved. We just bossed it in there and I have no idea what that Ceballos was meant to be doing. Presumably he’s in there for his eye for a defence splitting pass. We saw that last week when he created a goal for Aubameyeng, and he almost repeated the trick in this game but unfortunately Sadio couldn’t finish after being found in the box with a perfect pass. Seriously, what the hell was Ceballos doing there?
It was symptomatic of Arsenal’s game throughout though. They’d get a goal kick, pass it short and then they’d proceed to keep playing little passes in and around their own box until we eventually took it from them. Honestly, it was a miracle that their goal stayed intact as long as it did.
I think part of the problem was it took us a while to figure out what they were doing. Not just with the passing it around in their own third, but also with what they were doing when we had the ball. They were so narrow and seemed happy to just let Robbo and Trent have it. I bet they don’t have another game this season in which they have this kind of space. It was crazy.
Robb put in two brilliant crosses that deserved to have someone on the end of them. Bobby was a whisker away from one and I think Mo was closest to the other. Trent didn’t quite have his radar going though. He put in plenty of crosses but the delivery wasn’t the best and in fairness it’s not easy when Arsenal had eight men (nine including the keeper) in their box every time we put a ball in.
They aren’t the biggest side though and we exploited that. Defending crosses against our front three is one thing, but you could see any time we had a corner that there was a big height advantage for us. I actually said to my Dad early on that Van Dijk or Matip might be our best chance of breaking the deadlock.
Virgil almost did but his thumping header smacked Bobby on the ear. Unfortunate that as it would have burst the net. Arsenal knew they had a problem there and were so pre-occupied with stopping him that no-one did anything about Matip. When you look at the goal, Virgil is being dragged all over the place by his shirt and had we not scored there was every chance we’d have gotten a pen there.
We did score though, as ‘Big Bird’ just sort of leaned in above everyone and got the side of his head on the ball to send Trent’s corner flying past Leno. I thought Matip was brilliant all game, but to score just capped it off nicely.
I didn’t even expect him to play. I’ve said in previous reports I feel as though he should be first choice as he’s done nothing to deserve losing his spot, but because of the threat Arsenal have up top with their speed merchants I expected Gomez would start this one and I was surprised (but not disappointed) when I saw the team. He justified his inclusion and then some. He’s going to take some shifting from this team as he’s fucking brilliant. Free transfer too. I do love a good Bosman.
Anyway, the goal was no more than we deserved. I didn’t think it would immediately force Arsenal to change their approach though as teams who are playing defensively tend to not change much at 1-0, not until they get to the latter stages anyway. Arsenal didn’t really seem to change much even when it was 3-0 though! They only started to come out and have a go after Klopp began to make substitutions because the game was over.
We just blew them away in the early part of the second half. The penalty was soft but only because Salah stayed on his feet. The shirt pull was there for all to see and although it only impeded Mo’s run slightly, it did impede it and it happened right in front of the ref.
Luiz can complain all he likes but if you get wrong side of a forward and you grab a handful of shirt right in front of the ref, what do you think is going to happen? You can grab a shirt when you’re grappling with someone, but when they’ve gone past and you just reach out and grab them then you’re asking for trouble.
Mo has developed this weird penalty taking routine that up to now I’ve not really been too taken with. It’s too obvious where he’s putting it for me. The run up is so wide and from such a strange angle that it’s either going down the middle or to the keeper’s right. For some reason Leno dived the other way, but it wouldn’t have mattered as Mo leathered it right into the top corner. Great penalty.
He’s been playing superbly this season and looks razor sharp but until this game he hadn’t really gotten much reward for his efforts. His second goal was glorious though. It was the Salah of 17/18 that. It felt like he was doing stuff like that every week back then. Since then he’s had loads of exciting runs like that but usually the finish hasn’t been there.
This one was sensational. He got himself isolated with Luiz, who was on a booking after the penalty incident, and he just had him on toast. Luiz got too tight initially, then he didn’t drop off enough and ended up in no man’s land. Not tight enough to stop the turn, too tight to be able to match Mo for pace. The only options he had was to bring him down and pick up a red card, or let him go and hope for the best.
He did the right thing I reckon. It was a long way from goal and Mo still had a lot to do. Other defenders were in the vicinity and Luiz was entitled to think that one of them might get across and at least force Salah to do something to beat them.
They didn’t. The afterburners went on and he had a clear run into the box before drilling a low shot into the far corner. Sensational stuff.
At that point I really thought we’d go on to get five or maybe even more. Arsenal’s heads were all over the place but they were still fannying around in their own final third and inviting pressure. I reckon our lads probably couldn’t believe their luck. It was just too easy. We were pressing them and they couldn’t get out, but at no point did they abandon the approach and start to go long.
They just couldn’t get out of their own half, and in fairness it never really looked like they wanted to. On the odd occasion they broke and got the ball to Pepe or Aubameyeng, they were dealt with by Virgil and Joel. There was one nervy moment though when a suspiciously offside looking Aubameyeng raced through the centre. He took an age to make his mind up and that allowed Matip to get back in and make a great challenge.
And that brings me to another problem with VAR. The linesman is told not to flag in those situations and to allow it to play out as the video can sort it out later. If Arsenal had scored there, it would have been disallowed as he was actually offside. But because the flag didn’t go up Arsenal got a corner out of it. What if they’d scored from the corner? How is that acceptable?
And speaking of VAR, does anyone actually know what that ‘checking for red card’ bollocks was in the first half? As far as I’m aware, the replays didn’t show anything even remotely iffy so what exactly were they looking at? Everyone was hanging around waiting, but I don’t think the time wasn’t added on at the end of the half. Shite.
At 3-0 we had our tails up and were just flying around. There was one great moment when Wijnaldum nipped in to rob an Arsenal player and run off down the left wing. They got two players over to cover him, and he just casually ’megged one of them and laid it off inside. Great that.
The best party piece of the game though was obviously Bobby’s outrageous chip over Ceballos. His shot was blocked but if he’d banged that into the top corner we might be talking about the greatest goal Anfield has ever seen. I still don’t know how he got that much height on the ball without dragging it back first. He must have feet like fucking spoons to do that.
If we could have grabbed a fourth then we might have continued flying at them looking for more, but Arsenal somehow managed to muddle through that wobbly spell and it was almost as though everyone eventually decided enough was enough. Klopp started making changes, the fans just sat back and relaxed (the atmosphere prior to that had been great all day) and the players got sloppy. To be fair, it was roasting hot for once. I was actually wearing shorts. To the match! That almost never happens. Bet it’s freezing and wet next home game.
I wouldn’t say Arsenal’s goal had been coming but it did arrive in a spell in which they actually had some meaningful possession in our half for virtually the first time in the game. Every other moment they’d had was a result of a breakaway, but now they were actually playing in our half of the field because we stopped pressing them.
The goal was scrappy. Hendo was a bit unlucky that his challenge didn’t stop Torreira. He was in the right place and got his foot in, but the ball just broke nicely for the Uruguayan to fire a low one past Adrian.
The skipper probably could have done a bit better there. It was a strange game for him, because I thought he was fucking brilliant and yet he was arguably at fault for a goal and he was incredibly lucky not to have been punished for that mistake in the first half. Some of his passing was glorious though, and his energy was commendable on such a hot day.
The changes demo took the momentum out of the game. Milner for Gini was like for like and didn’t change much, but I felt as though the game started to drift when Mané was replaced by Ox. My feelings on Ox as a winger are well documented but this wasn’t specifically about anything he did wrong. It’s just, I don’t know, I feel as though Mané going off allowed Arsenal to draw breath and think “ok, that’s going to make life easier”.
Sadio wasn’t even involved in anything that significant but he’s such a fucking menace. He never stops and you can see that opponents are terrified of him these days. His departure affected us, but it also lifted Arsenal. Bobby going off for Lallana also basically let them play about forty yards higher up the pitch than they had been, but the game was won by that point and I have no issue with protecting the front three when possible.
I do feel for the likes of Shaq and Divock though when Klopp would rather use Ox and Lallana out of position than give them a run out. Shaq especially just never seems to see the field regardless of how comfortable we are in games. No wonder he’s frustrated.
All in all though, another great day at Anfield even though it almost felt like just a typical day at the office. The bar has been set so high by City and ourselves that no-one else is able to even get close. We’re both so much better than everyone else it’s ridiculous. Last week City made Spurs look like a relegation side (freak result aside) and this week we were pushing Arsenal around like they were a little kid in the playground.
At Anfield I don’t think anyone other than City can even give us a proper game. Away from home it’s different, especially when Europe comes around and we’re playing twice a week. That can be more difficult, but it’s hard to envisage anyone other than City being able to take points at Anfield.
That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, as freak results can happen and there’s always a potential ‘Leicester from last year’ game around the corner where we don’t play to our best and key decisions don’t go our way, but Anfield is a place where no-one wants to go anymore.
Star man could have been anyone from about half a dozen. Bobby was brilliant, Robbo was Robbo, Virgil was imperious, Salah electric and Hendo top drawer. I’m giving it to Matip though. He was great.
I don’t buy replica shirts anymore and even if I did I wouldn’t get a player’s name on it, but if you put a gun to my head right now and forced me to wear one, I reckon I’d go with Joel, because even though he’s ace we’ve got so many quality players now that hardly anyone is going to go in the shop and ask for “Matip 32”. They should though, because he’s boss.
Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum (Milner); Salah, Firmino (Lallana), Mané (Oxlade-Chamberlain):
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