WENGER IS PUNISHED
Sanchez left on bench as Liverpool strike
IF YOU leave out your best player, the one whose contract runs out in 16 months, then generally you have to be proved right, even if you have 20 years of credit on which to fall back.
Yet Arsene Wenger’s decision last night to start without Alexis Sanchez looked odd at best. Ten minutes into this game, it looked utterly bizarre. Arsenal were as lame and lax as they can be at their worst — and they have recently tested the low water mark of that kind of performance.
And once Sanchez did come on and Arsenal improved immeasurably, it was a decision which looked ever-more incomprehensible. Not only will it have angered Sanchez, it damaged the team, the fight for the top four and perhaps undermined their entire season.
For Arsenal are outside the top four with Liverpool’s win taking them back into the Champions League positions. Wenger has been in worse positions and recovered — and indeed he still has a game in hand over Jurgen Klopp’s team.
But you fear for the reception this side will receive if they repeat their first-half performance against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.
That might be enough to convince Wenger his time is up. For even though they were much improved in the second half and at times looked like grabbing an unlikely point, they were deservedly beaten.
When Adam Lallana swept a ball to Divock Origi during injury time and the Belgian sprinted away to provide a cross for Georginio Wijnaldum to add Liverpool’s third, it made the scoreline as decisive as much of the performance had been.
The opening goal perhaps typified the Arsenal way of the past decade. They put together a superb passing sequence, in which Liverpool could not get close to the ball.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looked bright and Alex Iwobi looked neat. You might have convinced yourself they had the upper hand, though it ended with Granit Xhaka overhitting a pass for Nacho Monreal, who could not keep the ball in.
Then the denouement: from the resulting goal-kick, Laurent Koscielny failed to win a header and the ball was flicked to Sadio Mane. Though he drove in a decent cross, it should have been cleared but Hector Bellerin comically let it through his legs, so that Roberto Firmino had time and space to score. He took a touch which almost killed the chance but did eventually put Liverpool in front.
The trouble with this brittle Arsenal side is you never feel there is any coming back from such a setback, even after nine minutes.
Petr Cech saved a great strike from Philippe Coutinho on the half-hour but Liverpool extended their lead five minutes from the interval.
The ease with which James Milner rifted forwards to find Emre Can, ho swept the ball on to Firmino was mbarrassing. The Brazilian found Mane on the edge of the box and he provided the perfect finale to the move with a clinical finish.
It needed Cech again to block Coutinho on the stroke of half-time to prevent further humiliation.
Whatever his detractors maintain, Wenger is no fool. Having made an obvious error, he at least rectified it.
Francis Coquelin, who had endured an awful first half and surely cannot be exposed again against Bayern Munich, was replaced by Sanchez.
Having one of the world’s best players on the pitch somehow lifted Arsenal. In the 49th minute, Monreal sent in a cross which Olivier Giroud headed goalwards. Simon Mignolet got a touch and saw the ball loop on to the crossbar before it was scrambled away.
Sanchez’s aggressive intent found an outlet in the 57th minute when he played in Danny Welbeck. The angle was tight and Mignolet was fast approaching, so it looked as if the chance had gone. But with a deft chip, Welbeck lifted the ball over Mignolet and into the net.
When Coutinho crossed on the hour, it took a fine interception from Shkodran Mustafi to prevent Firmino tapping in his second for Liverpool.
Meanwhile, there was that man Sanchez making a mockery of the decision to leave him out in the first place. It was not just that he offered a potent treat, with Can eventually reduced simply to upending him in a bid to stop him. All around him other players lifted their game. Welbeck came alive while Iwobi seemed a yard quicker and Giroud a yard taller.
But Liverpool, lambs at Leicester, were yet again lions against major opposition at Anfield. Long term, that is no way to earn credentials as a proper team but, for the moment, Klopp will probably take this upgrade as a sign of hope.