Arsenal youngsters left seeing red by Klopp’s press

At Anfield

Liverpool

A few minutes into the second half at Anfield, as Arsenal were drowning in the relentless waves of Liverpool’s pressing, Alexandre Lacazette trotted back from his advanced position and threw his arm around the neck of Albert Sambi Lokonga. Arsenal’s young midfielder was flailing in these moments, surrendering cheap possession four times in 90 seconds, and Lacazette clearly felt the need to calm him down.

If only Lacazette could have paused the game and worked his way around each of his team-mates, telling them to catch their breath and regain their cool, Arsenal might not have lost their collective composure in such damaging fashion. Instead, the nervousness and indecision spread outwards from Lokonga. Next to wobble was Nuno Tavares, who gave the ball to Diogo Jota for Liverpool’s second goal.

Rattled, panicked, overwhelmed: these were frightening moments for Arsenal’s players, as the attack dogs in red came at them from every angle. After the game, Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-arnold described Arsenal as “seeing red blurs all over the place” and it certainly looked dizzying for Lokonga, Tavares and the rest.

Watching at Anfield, where the crowd seemed to swell with every Arsenal mistake and the pressure was dialled up to almost unbearable levels, it felt as if Mikel Arteta’s side were in need of a lifeboat. Or, failing that, just a few moments to stop and think. Instead they continued to play short passes in their own half, inviting more and more Liverpool players to swarm around them.

“We had to mix our play much better,” Arteta said. “We threw it away in the first 15 to 20 minutes. We gave every ball away in very dangerous areas.”

It was a case of Arsenal’s young players failing to understand the flow of the game and the dynamic of the venue. Perhaps that should not have come as a surprise, though, given that their manager had done the same thing when he flew at Jurgen Klopp in a rage on the touchline.

Anfield is a beast on nights like these, and Arteta woke it up. Roared on by the supporters, Liverpool reached a new level of intensity. They found the net a few minutes later and did not slow down again until the scoreboard read four and Arsenal’s faces had been pushed firmly into the mud.

It was primarily in midfield where Liverpool exerted their dominance, with the snarling Fabinho doing more than anyone to wreck Arsenal’s game plan. He had done the same at the Emirates last season, cutting off every counter-attack and winning every loose ball, and Arsenal again found him an insurmountable hurdle on Saturday.

No Liverpool player regained possession more times than the Brazilian. He was the nastiest kid in the playground, offering an aggression and a physicality which Arsenal could not match.

For Arsenal, the result does not erase their recent progress, and in truth it did not tell Arteta anything new about his team. Their longterm plan is to be capable of coping with the best in the world. Evidently, they have some way to go.