GUNNERS KEEP ROLLING
Lacazette’s sizzling goal shows Arsenal are back as a real force, after Milner silences the Emirates
FOR A title race in which a rival team will require 100 points or so to eclipse Manchester City, this was not a heaven-sent result. Yet there was a bigger story at play beyond mere point accumulation: the unmistakable sense that Arsenal are back as a force in the Premier League.
This was confirmed eight minutes from time when Alexandre Lacazette, a player at the hub of the reemergence of this club, spun away from the Liverpool goal with the ball at his feet, turned and unfurled a shot which arced into the far corner of Liverpool’s net. But it was evident long before, as a Liverpool side displaying a steel-framed defence were submitted to the kind of attacking threat they have not faced this season.
Unai Emery understood the game’s significance as a yardstick of how far and how fast his Arsenal team are travelling. ‘Now is the time for us to write new history,’ he wrote in his programme notes . ‘We want to create a new future here.’
It’s hard to decipher from the week-to-week discussions how he, with his faltering English, really feels about progress but the touchline told the story last night.
When Manchester City were in the stadium nearly three months ago, ruthlessly revealing the chasm in class that Emery was facing, the Spaniard looked a lost soul, hands stuffed in pockets of his tight blue suit. This was another story.
The manager’s triumphant punch, after Granit Xhaka — who bore no comparison with the liability of years past — had raced back 20 yards and slid into the penalty-box tackle to dispossess Mohamed Salah, seemed significant. It was the gesture of a coach who knew this kind of Xhaka was lurking in there somewhere.
Xhaka had been the best player on the pitch in the first half — linking play in an Arsenal side who operated with urgency, shipping the ball with purpose, pace and often one touch. It made a mockery of the ponderous possession of recent years and it made the supposedly imperious Liverpool defence look breachable.
Trent Alexander-Arnold bore the brunt of it, as much of the red advance came down his flank. The game was two minutes old when Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang exchanged possession and took the young man out of the equation. No one in the purple Liverpool was immune.
The best of Arsenal was seen in the first half’s closing moments: a ball whipped by Ozil in to the feet of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, propelled under the Armenian’s studs to Lacazette, who fired narrowly wide. But Alisson also saved instinctively as Sead Kolasinac’s own first touch — outside of the left foot, a few yards out — seemed to have navigated Emery’s side into a lead.
Liverpool are not a side to suffer indignity lightly, of course. Arsenal’s early momentum shook them but they were back on their feet inside 15 minutes. Salah looked sharp and confident again. Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson both delivered with precision. Emery’s central defence looked the more vulnerable of the two rearguards, when tested. The first half’s moment of controversy belonged to Liverpool, for whom Sadio Mane converted from a rebound after Roberto Firmino hit the bar on 17 minutes, only to be ruled offside. He was onside — behind Firmino — in the phase of football from which he scored, though was unjustifiably penalised for being offside when he first touched the ball, seconds earlier.
It wasn’t Liverpool’s only chance. Shkodran Mustafi forgot to track Virgil van Dijk five minutes later and the Dutchman was free, eight yards out, to take a beautifully judged Salah free-kick on his chest and take aim. He shot straight at Bernd Leno, who still required sharp reactions to save.
Van Dijk was also the attacking threat on the stroke of half-time, leaping above Rob Holding and Leno to send a James Milner freekick trickling through to hit the base of the post.
The worst of the storm seemed to have passed, from a Liverpool perspective.
Arsenal still held the balance of power after half-time but Jurgen Klopp’s players repelled them with more conviction, then took their chance and went ahead.
Robertson delivered short down the left for Mane, whose speculative cross across the box was palmed out by Leno to Milner.
The midfielder struck the loose ball home, low and hard from just outside the area, helped by Holding unsighting Leno. Emery grimaced and he had good reason. There had been no need for Leno to divert a ball which posed minimal danger into a position where it did.
It was a hammer blow from which Arsenal were jolted and with Van Dijk still at the heart of Liverpool’s endeavour in both boxes, the game was very nearly put beyond them. The Dutchman connected powerfully with a corner, leaping, watching the ball right on to his forehead and forcing more instinctive goalkeeping from Leno.
And then, Lacazette and his denouement moment. Substitute Alex Iwobi threaded a ball which sent the Frenchman in behind the Liverpool defence, Alisson was fast off his line to close down the angle but Lacazette turned, shifted the ball from left foot to right and sent home his shot from the narrowest of angles. Emery leaped towards the night sky and screamed. Arsenal are once again in business.
arSenaL: Leno, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Kolasinac (Welbeck 81), Torreira, Xhaka, Mkhitary an (Iwobi 68),Ozil, Aubameyang (Ramsey 73),Lacazette. Subs not Used: Cech, Lichtsteiner, Maitland-Niles, Smith-Rowe. Booked: Lacazette. Goal: Lacazette 82. LiverpooL: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Milner, Salah (Matip 90),Firmino (Shaqiri 80), Mane. Subs not Used: Sturridge, Moreno, Lallana, Mign olet,Origi. Booked: Fabinho. Goal: Milner 61. referee: Andre Marriner.