Wenger is stuck in a time warp as Liverpool run amok
Forget the drama for a moment, forget the utterly beautiful chaos of this game. the salient point is that already, after just one game, Arsenal are behind.
they are behind Manchester City and behind Manchester United, too. By 10pm tonight, they may be behind Chelsea, as well.
As such, it is the same as it ever was for Arsene Wenger and his team. three times out of the last four Premier League seasons, Arsenal have begun their programme with defeat here. Already, they are in the slipstream of their rivals.
He made the extraordinary claim that Arsenal are not ready for the new season after this loss.
Wenger left out Mesut ozil, olivier giroud and Laurent Koscielny; the trio only returned to pre-season training last Monday due to their euro 2016 exerts.
However, Alexis Sanchez and Aaron ramsey — who later limped off with a hamstring injury — did start despite having just two weeks of training under their belt. Alex Iwobi also limped off with a thigh injury.
Speaking last Sunday after their pre-season win over Manchester City in gothenburg, Wenger said: ‘I feel we could see we played together for a while, physically we look ready.’
But Wenger changed his mind after watching his team lose here.
‘We are not ready physically,’ he said. ‘You are in a Catch-22 situation with the euros whether you give the players a rest who need it.
‘they are not ready to play this sort of game and get injured like ramsey or you give them a rest and not have them for the start.
‘When will we be ready? I don’t know. We have to be ready next week because we go to Leicester.’
this was a crazy, helter-skelter kind of game. It was utterly beguiling.
If day one of the new season had left us wanting a little more by the time we were shielding our eyes from gary Lineker’s orange glow on Saturday evening, here was the game to rescue the weekend. It may well be that May comes around without us witnessing another one quite like it.
Jurgen Klopp’s outrageous Liverpool team went from one down to 4-1 up in just 16 minutes of play. In that period, they played some sublime football to overwhelm their opponents.
then they almost gave it all back again. the final act of the day was one that saw Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla smash a cross straight in to the backside of a team-mate and that just about summed everything up. Carry on Football.
So, yes, this was all rather special in its own ridiculous way. But for the Arsenal supporters who jeered Wenger all the way down the players’ tunnel at full-time, it still smacked dismally of deja vu.
early on, there was absolutely no sign of the horrors that were to come. Arsenal were positive and dominated the opening stages.
Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno conceded a penalty with a rash challenge on theo Walcott after half an hour and though the Arsenal forward saw his kick saved by Simon Mignolet, the Spaniard then gave him enough space a minute later to drive a low shot across the goalkeeper and into the corner. A goal up, Arsenal were comfortable but it was not a feeling that was to last long. Slowly, Liverpool’s key players grew in to the game and when young rob Holding laid an arm on Philippe Coutinho in first-half injury time, the Brazilian stood up and whipped a 30-yard freekick beyond Petr Cech to bring his team level. Liverpool took the lead in the 49th minute thanks to Adam Lallana’s neat finish. Soon after, though, Coutinho arrived like a train to volley in a cross from Nathaniel Clyne after the full-back had burned Nacho Monreal to reach the byline.
When Saido Mane cut in past Calum Chambers from the right to beat Cech with a rising left-foot shot in the 63rd minute, bedlam threatened to engulf the emirates.
In front of the Liverpool dugout, Klopp (left) gave his goalscorer a piggy back.
‘We came out and scored wonderful goals,’ he said. ‘then I made a big mistake as I was involved in the celebrations. there was still half an hour to go.
‘If you celebrate too early, life always gives you a knock.’
Substitute Alex oxlade-Chamberlain wriggled free to score via a deflection and then Chambers headed in a free-kick, but there was to be no comeback for Arsenal to save their under-fire manager from the boos.