Party time but are the celebrations a bit OTT?
Arteta whips Gunners into frenzy — just imagine what they’ll be like if they’re top in May!
AMID the chaos of a defensive performance so bad it was barely fathomable, Jurgen Klopp may just have been nudged towards a decision that may yet benefit his Liverpool team.
On the highlights reel of this strange game at the Emirates — a day on which neither team looked anywhere near good enough to win a Premier League — the late sending-off of Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate will not feature prominently. But it’s important, nevertheless, because the Frenchman’s one-game suspension may now force Liverpool manager Klopp (below) to field what should really be his first-choice back four from this point on.
Joe Gomez — back from injury yet again and performing terrifically well at left back to plug a hole left by Andrew Robertson’s long absence — is a central defender at heart. When he is fit and firing, he’s always been the best and most natural partner for Virgil van Dijk.
And now that should come to pass. Liverpool’s next game is at home to Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday and if the Liverpool back four doesn’t read Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson then something very strange will have happened in the interim.
Konate’s form has been decent enough this season. He played very well, for example, when these two teams drew a much better game than this one on Merseyside in late December. But Gomez is a better footballer. He reads the game better and uses the ball better. From this point on the 26-year-old should be presented with the opportunity to renew a central partnership with Van Dijk that has long been the best one at the football club.
Liverpool were wretched from front to back at the Emirates and deserved nothing from this game. For all but a 10-minute period at the start of the second half, they were second best to Arsenal.
Van Dijk epitomised his team’s dreadfulness. The Dutchman was responsible for Arsenal’s crucial second goal — he should simply have headed the long punt from deep away before it landed — and deflected the third through the legs of his own goalkeeper, Alisson Becker.
But this was a day when the responsibility was collective. Konate, for example, played Kai Havertz onside with a criminal lack of concentration on the way to Arsenal scoring the game’s first goal early in the afternoon, and his two yellow cards were ugly and spoke of an uncertainty when opponents attempt to turn him or roll him. Both were avoidable. Both were innocuous but telling at the same time.
At the other end of the field, Liverpool were just as unimpressive. Cody Gakpo, the forward, only ever really looks comfortable when he is playing a supporting role. Here, with Mo Salah absent and Darwin Nunez beginning the day among the substitutes, he was asked to carry the load and didn’t respond well enough. And then there is Nunez. So much talent. So much potential. So much threat. But, given his opportunity to make a mark on this game in the second half, he wasted it. One moment in particular, easing past his man only to shoot wildly from an impossible angle with teammates waiting for a cross, spoke of an immaturity that he really should be starting to shed after a season and a half at Anfield. For Arsenal, this result was everything and you could tell. Their celebrations at full time were remarkable. Heaven knows what it will be like here in north London if they ever do win the league. But we shouldn’t knock it, really. Defeat here may have left Mikel Arteta’s team out of title contention but that never looked likely. Maybe it was relief at the end. Maybe it was the adrenaline of a genuinely big result. They have struggled recently and this did feel a little like a boil had been lanced.
Now, Arteta and his players must move on and improve. Liverpool will recover. Manchester City — at Brentford tonight — will win and then win some more. So Arsenal will need to find levels greater than those they found here. Arteta was emotional as he watched and it’s always like this. At full time his players did a lap of honour and the Spaniard was not far behind.
On the touchline during the game, the Arsenal coach was as fully invested as ever. At one point in the second half he seemed to be telling referee Anthony Taylor to add on time as Liverpool hesitated over a throwin. Arsenal were leading at the time, though. Why ask for the clock to be stopped? Strange.
All of this plays to the idea that Arteta is a little over-emotional during games and there is indeed something to that.
Does his persistent waving of arms, chasing of loose balls that leave the field and chuntering at the referee and his assistants really do much to help his team? Or is it in danger of working the other way? It’s certainly a debate worth having. At times Arsenal do appear to be rather too highly strung.
But this is not the time to pore over the details of that one. In terms of his team’s football, Arteta’s influence continues to be profound. It is unlikely they will win the league this season. They may have a better chance in Europe.
They are alive in the title race, though. Liverpool helped them with that and this, it must be said, came out of nowhere.