Match Reaction v Liverpool (home)

[Özim]

I think it's obviously a good win for us, Liverpool clearly aren't as focussed since they won the title, Van Dijk has made more errors in a couple games than he has since he arrived at Liverpool but they still dominated, wasn't their night.

Couple errors but Lacazette having a good run and scoring again, his confidence seems to be growing, no Mustafi which is a positve Holding was a million times better, Martinez got away with his poor kick early on but has been generally good since he came in, good to see Torreira in as well, for me he should play most games.

All in all good and good to see Nelson score too.

[LDG]

Love beating Liverpool. Don’t care when, don’t care how.

Apparently they haven’t been beaten when Rush Mane scored first for like EVER.

Fuck em.

Tets

[Letters]

I think it's obviously a good win for us, Liverpool clearly aren't as focussed since they won the title, Van Dijk has made more errors in a couple games than he has since he arrived at Liverpool but they still dominated, wasn't their night.

Couple errors but Lacazette having a good run and scoring again, his confidence seems to be growing, no Mustafi which is a positve Holding was a million times better, Martinez got away with his poor kick early on but has been generally good since he came in, good to see Torreira in as well, for me he should play most games.

All in all good and good to see Nelson score too.

[I am invisible]

Wow... was expecting an absolute battering there. Instead we got an absolute battering and 3 points?! Fair enough - I'll take it.

[Letters]

Wow... was expecting an absolute battering there. Instead we got an absolute battering and 3 points?! Fair enough - I'll take it.

I only saw bits of it but I'm not sure we got battered. Saw most of the second half and felt we contained them pretty well.

It's funny, football. I'm pretty jaded by it all. I'm jaded by Arsenal and the sport in general and am pretty fed up with the state of the club and how we are run.
I don't watch games much these days.
And, let's face it, had the title race still been alive and Liverpool had needed something they'd have wiped the floor with us.
Holiday brochures well thumbed at Anfield.

But...all that said, my heart was still thumping towards the end as I feared we'd concede an equaliser and while I wasn't leaping round the room at the final whistle I still went to bed a happy bunny and have a spring in my step this morning.

Football
and
Football

[Marc Overmars]

We defended well and didn’t fold under the constant pressure, that was pleasing to see especially as we limited their clear cut chances to just 1 or 2. The result is hilarious because we offered practically nothing at the other end, embarrassingly so. That’s one of those games we’d lose 9 times out of 10 playing like that but it was our night fortunately.

Hopefully we haven’t used up all our luck yet because we’ll need a lot of it this weekend.

[dazthegooner]

Think our night could have been worse if Arteta had started with Koz rather than Holding with all the pressure we were under giving Koz enough time I'm sure he would have kindly scored an own goal to even things up (though Arteta did give him a couple of minutes to do so)

[I am invisible]

Good post match interview with Arteta, he talks about how big the gap is and the task at hand.

I like him and the way he speaks. I just hope he’s the right man for the job.

Yeah, it's refreshing to hear someone actually acknowledge the problems, rather than trying to throw dust in our eyes and convince us that god-awful football is actually brilliant - that we don't appreciate it because we're not professionals - or that we're one step away from domination! Also glad he's continuing to heap pressure on the owners and the execs - these guys can't be allowed to just slide into the background this summer.

Tbh, if you've followed his interviews since he took over then you'll know exactly what he's been working on and where he thinks we are right now as a group: basically we've re-established some professional standards and accountability, given the players a crash course in fitness, shape and pressing, and at least got the players showing a bit of fight and pride in wearing the shirt again. And not too much more than that - we just don't have the players to play the football he wants yet, as he's been saying pretty much from day one. Quite frankly, if you thought we were only a different managerial hire away from immediate champagne football and the Champions League, and you're disappointed with where we currently are, then that's on you.

We're not just talking about a first team rebuild here - we're talking about a root-and-branch overhaul of the entire club: players, coaching staff, scouting, exec team, culture, identity, ambition... everything. Years of work, and we're only a couple of months into it (not counting the dead time on lockdown). It was always going to be a big enough task anyway (after no CL income for 3 years, possibly no European football at all next year, dwindling cash reserves, an astronomical wage bill, and a bunch of players who we're going to struggle to sell and who probably won't raise much even if we can), but now it looks like we're going to have to try and fund it all without match-day income too! Seriously, if you haven't already done so then reset your expectation levels now, because any progress is going to have to be gradual, and we're likely to be heavily reliant on the kids we have maturing and getting very lucky scouting talented nobodies and freebies. We're also likely to be stuck with many of the same problem-players until their contracts expire, so steel yourself for more self-destruct moments before we're done, because they're going to happen.

[I am invisible]

I only saw bits of it but I'm not sure we got battered. Saw most of the second half and felt we contained them pretty well.

It's funny, football. I'm pretty jaded by it all. I'm jaded by Arsenal and the sport in general and am pretty fed up with the state of the club and how we are run.
I don't watch games much these days.
And, let's face it, had the title race still been alive and Liverpool had needed something they'd have wiped the floor with us.
Holiday brochures well thumbed at Anfield.

But...all that said, my heart was still thumping towards the end as I feared we'd concede an equaliser and while I wasn't leaping round the room at the final whistle I still went to bed a happy bunny and have a spring in my step this morning.

Football
and
Football

Tbh, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet - just going off reports I've read. It sounds like pragmatism and containment are going to be the order of the day in a lot of our tougher games until we can get the players in the middle to do something more - at the moment it feels like we have wingers, fullback, strikers and keepers, but not a great deal in the heart of the side?

[Mac76]

Yeah, it's refreshing to hear someone actually acknowledge the problems, rather than trying to throw dust in our eyes and convince us that god-awful football is actually brilliant

...and it neatly deflects from his having to face up to his poor team selections in the past don't you think?

he did better having Holding and leaving out both Kola and Mustafi

and Nelson for all people's criticism did well enough

It's ironic that Laca has finally remmebered how to score goals again, although hopefully it might help us sell him

although knowing us, we'll sell the constantly-misused Auba and keep Laca who will no doubt drop back into his poorest form come next season