‘Fab Four’ again undermined by dodgy defence
Familiar failings on show as Liverpool’s attack is sabotaged by frailty at the back
The last time Arsenal faced Liverpool under the Friday night lights, the year was 1989 and the old Division One title was on the line. It is a telling indication of quite how much has changed in the subsequent 28 years that a meeting between these two giants of English football has since been reduced to a mildly important tie in the race for fourth place.
And yet even those great teams of old would have salivated at the prospect of fielding an attack as bone-chillingly terrifying as Jurgen Klopp’s ‘Fab Four’, a quartet that could boast the same imagination and speed with which Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane rip into Premier League defences.
How they would have utilised such strikepower, such swagger. And how they would have winced at the abominable defending behind them. They say football matches can be a game of two halves, but Liverpool are making a fine attempt at becoming a team of two halves.
This rip-roaring encounter was the sort of unpredictable meeting we have come to expect from a match between north London and Merseyside’s most successful sides, which is fast becoming the Premier League’s most consistently entertaining fixture. And yet, at the end of it all, when that whistle had finally blown and the Emirates could breathe once more, we had, frankly, learned nothing new.
Arsenal continue to perform in patches, while Liverpool’s attacking brilliance continues to be accompanied by sheer inadequacy at the back.
One of the primary criticisms of Arsene Wenger over the years has been his inability to prevent the same problems recurring again and again. It is a complaint which Liverpool fans can feel increasingly justified in directing at Jurgen Klopp.
Yes, Liverpool’s defending has improved in recent weeks. But no, they have not banished the ineptitude that has held them back whenever they are on the verge of taking a step forward.
Perhaps this is to do a disservice to a spirited Arsenal comeback, which was produced when the game appeared to have gone. This, though, still felt like points dropped by Liverpool rather than points earned by their rivals.
Such was the ease with which Liverpool marmalised the home side’s rearguard in the first 50 minutes that the contest should have been over long before the implosion of Klopp’s defence.
The question of how to stop this front four will perplex better teams than Arsenal, and more defensively conscious managers than Wenger, but perhaps the answer is simply to cross your fingers and hope to survive. That certainly felt like the home side’s best hope for long periods here.
At times, Liverpool sliced through the Arsenal defence in front of Wenger’s eyes as if they were a chef in a high-end restaurant, only to miss the target. If it was not such a thrilling spectacle, one could almost have felt sorry for the Arsenal manager.
There was certainly sympathy for poor Ainsley Maitland-niles, the 20-year-old makeshift defender faced with the prospect of shackling Salah, the most feared right winger in Europe.
For Wenger to select him there against a player of Salah’s calibre was not so much throwing him in the deep end as dropping him in the Atlantic. Maitland-niles twice got away with poor positioning but his inexperience eventually told.
Even 2-0 behind, the scoreline still felt flattering to Arsenal. It was at this precise moment that Joe Gomez and Simon Mignolet were struck with a recurring case of the defensive jitters, and Liverpool’s dominance faded into nothing. Having watched this debacle from afar, it fell to the front players to once again rescue their team-mates. Even on this wasteful form, the ‘Fab Four’ can still sing a tune, and they can still make the difference.