A lazy, arrogant, broken team with no ideas and no hope... and Wenger, YOU’RE TO BLAME
YES , LIVERPOOL WERE BRILLIANT , BUT THEY WERE HELPED BY A SPINELESS , CLUELESS , HUMILIATING DISPLAY BY THE GUNNERS
IF ever a single snapshot told the whole story, it was here at Anfield when Liverpool’s third goal went in.
Jurgen Klopp punched the air while emitting a primeval roar, his delight a testimony not just to his own passion, but the intensity of his magnificent side who had simply blown away Arsenal.
Sitting slumped barely a couple of metres away, Arsene Wenger could hardly raise his shaking head, a desolate figure on the visitors’ bench trembling with suppressed fury at the horrendous scenes unfolding.
Bad enough that his arrogantly casual side had gifted Liverpool and their deadly forwards Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah goals, but worse was the body language of his team. Worse in fact, than Wenger’s own. Alexis Sanchez looked as though he would rather have been anywhere else... and most certainly in Paris, or Manchester.
He looked a beaten man, as did just about every one of his team-mates.
Consider that for a second. Three games into a new season where everything is supposed to have changed for the Gunners, and they look a beaten team, with no hope and no ideas.
And Wenger, for all his historical brilliance as a manager, must take the blame for that. Here’s another matter to think about for a second.
Mane is quite possibly the most dangerous wide player in Europe right now, and yet the player Wenger chose to mark him is intent on leaving because he does not want to play wing-back.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was the unfortunate victim, and barely seconds into what became a no-contest, was another who looked as though the last thing he wanted to be doing was playing for Arsenal at Anfield.
It begs the question as to what the hell did Wenger imagine was going to happen?
What did happen, of course, was Mane taking the Ox apart – and the rest of the visitors’ defence too.
He scored a brilliant second goal and created so much chaos the Gunners looked punchdrunk.
Let us be clear, Liverpool were brilliant, devastating, magnificent.
Yet the dispassionate among the crowd at Anfield were entitled to wonder what Wenger had been doing in training all week, while Liverpool were occupied with a tough European game. Not working on how to counter the strengths of Klopp’s team, that is for sure.
The opening goal – which virtually decided this contest – was a case in point, and a damning indictment of what is going on with the Gunners right now.
What is certain about Liverpool is that they will press like demons. So the one thing you do not do against them is try lazy, fancy little lofted passes into vague space towards the touchline near your own box.
Yet on 17 minutes, Granit Xhaka did just that, and looked incredulous when Joe Gomez intercepted and found time and space to send over the perfect
cross for the outstanding Firmino to score.
Everyone makes errors, yet this was no isolated mistake but endemic in Arsenal’s woeful, disgraceful performance. Even Wenger conceded that.
The second goal was a breathtaking four-pass break of clinical precision allowing Mane to score superbly after Firmino’s simple final ball. Yet again, the possession was gifted not just cheaply, but criminally.
Incredibly, the third goal was even more embarrassing.
This time Hector Bellerin was the culprit, and it was hard to describe what he was doing, never mind thinking.
Somehow, as last man, he gifted the ball to Salah, who raced from halfway to score.
The painful truth for Wenger is that not only has he a side who look beaten and completely unmotivated, but they also look like they do not have spirit or bottle either.
In the end it was only four goals, substitute Daniel Sturridge adding the last when he headed home Salah’s brilliant cross.
The scoreline flattered Arsenal.
Had it been the eight Liverpool deserved, there could have been no complaints.