Tag Archives: Arsenal v. Liverpool

When your defense is so bad it makes Henderson look good

In the 30th minute Jordan Henderson looked up and saw Sturridge making a marauding run. It was a fast break moment and all he needed to do was make a simple pass to the Liverpool forward and it was going to be a clear goal scoring opportunity. Instead, he hit the ball wildly and even Sturridge, himself a mediocre player, looked at Henderson with daggers. At that moment I wrote myself a note, something to the effect that “Liverpool are such crap that Jordan Henderson can’t even make a simple pass on a breakaway and Arsenal’s defense is so comical that it makes Jordan Henderson look good.”

In fact, if there was a man of the match it was Jordan Henderson. Not because of his stellar individual play, but because Arsenal made him into the man of the match.

The first goal Arsenal conceded was simply blightful. Sagna lost his footing when Suarez’ lame pass was inches from the Arsenal defender. Then Glen Johnson crossed what was essentially right at both Mertesacker and Vermaelen. The big German was too slow to get to the ball but the little Belgian was there and all he needed to do was kick the ball out of play. Instead he took the biggest swing and a miss in the history of the sport, the momentum of his swing was so great that it flung him dramatically in the air and landed him square on his face. He couldn’t have executed that move any better on the set of Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Sturridge was so confused by all this Keystone Coppery that he just shot straight at Szczesny. Ramsey tried to collect the rebound but it was behind him and his flick at the ball played it right to… HENDERSON. The man of the match passed to Suarez who also was surprised by his good fortune and since Suarez has difficulty scoring with his feet, unless he uses his hands first, he shot straight at Per Mertesacker. All Mertesacker had to do was stand still. Instead, the German jumped and pirouetted balletically and Suarez’ shot went in.

Liverpool’s second goal was just as comical. Henderson again gets the ball, and this time he’s sandwiched between Mertesacker and Santos. Mertesacker sticks out a leg, Henderson skips past him, Santos stands there for a second and then decides to try to pull Henderson down by the shoulders, but Jordan Henderson, the Lionel Messi of Liverpool, powers on into the box. Aaron Ramsey comes flying in and gets a block on Henderson’s shot but the ball bounces off Santos and falls into Henderson’s path and he scores with aplomb.

He’d fly through the air with the greatest of ease,
That daring young man on the flying trapeze.

Liverpool were so poor that they needed no less than three comedy errors before they could score on Arsenal. Case in point, at the 43rd minute, Suarez plays Henderson through on goal. Arsenal’s normally solid keeper, Szczesny, comes out of his area and stands in front of Henderson with the goal gaping behind him. If Henderson had any talent at all he would have scored. One-on-one with a keeper out of his area is a dream situation for a decent footballer. But not Jordan Henderson, he chipped well over the box after taking a fortnight in deliberations. See, Liverpool needed at least three comedy mistakes before they could score and in that case Szczesny only offered the one.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the pitch Arsenal were at their rapacious best. Slicing through Liverpool’s own comedy defending with excellent passing and incisive dribbling. There was never any doubt that Arsenal would score and fans didn’t have to wait long after Henderson’s goal before Giroud delivered the goods.

Wilshere took a rare Arsenal long free kick and floated the ball perfectly to Giroud who simply nodded down. It was 1-2 now and Arsenal were back in the game, the Emirates faithful singing in full voice. It paid dividends as well as three minutes later Giroud slipped a neat little ball to Theo Walcott in the crowded Liverpool box. The Englishman slammed home down and to the right, where Peepee Reina has a known weakness. It was such a weird goal that I had to rub my eyes to check if I was actually awake.

From that point on it really looked like Arsenal would get the winner. Or maybe they would concede the winner, either way, a winner was there for the taking.

Cazorla and Wilshere were dynamic and surging forward. The Spaniard had a great cross fizz across the box and all Giroud needed to do was be a step earlier for an easy tap in. There were open shots from all sorts of angles that simply floated over or off to the side. If the first 75 minutes were carnival, those last 15 minutes were the day that the carnival wraps up: everyone wandering around drunk, looking to get that last elephant ear or play one more carnival game.

It was pure madness. So much so that in the 92nd minute, Andre Santos (who had been subbed on for the injured Gibbs) made a disastrous pass into the midfield which was picked off easily by Liverpool. At that moment I did something I’ve never done in my entire sports viewing life: I threw my pen on the ground and didn’t even watch what happened next. Apparently Liverpool didn’t score, see, because just one mistake, no matter how awful, wasn’t enough to gift that steaming pile of shit a goal.

And that’s Arsenal this season. Going forward they are a joy to behold, sometimes. When they are on, like in that second half last night, they are almost unstoppable, but they aren’t on all the time. In fact, the team doesn’t seem to be on even half the time. Arsenal didn’t even start this match until the 50th minute or so.

But at the back, they have the most errors of any Premier League team and they have the uncanny ability to put in 4 or 5 errors at a time gifting terrible players like Jordan Henderson man of the match-like performances.

Sorry but a top four team can have one or the other but they can’t have both. And Arsenal have just 14 game left to try to find a streak of good form in either department.

Arsenal v. Liverpool: serenity now, increase in ticket prices later

There’s an odd vibe permeating the buildup to this Arsenal v. Liverpool match.

From a sporting perspective, the match itself is important in that Arsenal are a mere 3 points above Liverpool in the race for the 7amkickoff 4th Place Cup™*. That fact is lending a surface tension to the game as both teams will see this as a chance to move up the table at the expense of a direct rival. But what’s beneath the surface is something bigger, something that neither team is talking about; the fact that both Arsenal’s and Liverpool’s cross-town rivals are 4 points clear of each team respectively.

No matter who wins today, neither of us can catch the old enemy. Not only will the points not be enough but Tottenham and Everton will have a game in hand at the end of the day. This fact isn’t much spoken about in my Arsenal circles, probably either through a combination of arrogant self-assuredness and outright fear. But the reality is that both Tottenham and Everton have good teams who will continue to challenge, over these last 15 games, for the 7amkickoff 4th Place Cup™. Consciously or subconsciously we all know that means that if either Arsenal or Liverpool want to be in the running they both need a win today.

On the Arsenal side of things, Wenger cannot afford to let his team start off on the back heel. Liverpool fancy themselves as a modern English team: they pass the ball, they attack, they are funded by a rich foreigner, and they openly admit to cheating. The best way to keep that cheating, biting, referee assaulting, convicted racist from hurting Arsenal by cheating is to not let him see much of the ball. And whatever you do, players, don’t bother sticking a leg out anywhere near him. If you do, you might as well just kick the ball into your own net.

Liverpool will try to exploit Arsenal’s penchant for weak starts and will spend a lot of energy in the first 15 minutes trying to get a goal. Liverpool have 7 goals so far this season in the first 15 minutes of games, their third best 15 minute period. If that doesn’t work, they will conserve energy and try to dominate the first 30 minutes of the second half where they have scored 45% of their goals this season. Arsenal’s 2nd weakest period in games is that 61-75th minute of games where they have conceded as many as they have scored (6).

A strong start is imperative to winning the match for both teams so, it could be quite insane. The end of the match as well, since Arsenal have one of the best records in the League in terms of scoring goals at the end of games and Liverpool one of the best defensive records closing games out. Kevin Friend is the referee today and Arsenal have never lost with Friend as referee. He has also overseen some crazy scorelines for Arsenal, 5-7 against Reading and 6-1 against Southampton. Bet on this match ending 3-3, 5-4, 6-6 or something just mental.

The other dark cloud hanging over the match today is a(nother) planned protest over ticket prices. This is a no-win situation for Arsenal FC. Having the highest prices in the League, by just a pound or two in some cases, has meant that Arsenal are now the target for opposition fan’s protests.

This ticket price issue is enormously complicated and crosses so many emotional boundaries that I am loathe to comment. It’s easy to simply be against higher ticket prices and I am. Hell, let’s make the games as cheap as possible: £20 for any seat in the house sounds good. But ticket prices reflect demand and if you artificially cap the price of a ticket, it just means more profits for touts. The real problem is demand.

liverpool

And the demand is generated by the teams creating such a great product. And they create such a great product by going into great debt buying players from all over the world and paying them outrageous salaries and their agents obscene finder’s fees. It makes a cute poster to say that a pint of beer would cost £9 if the price rose at the same rate as matchday ticket prices but beer has been made the same way for thousands of years. The only way that analogy (or any on that sheet above) make sense is if you had all the top breweries in England purchased by the world’s richest men who were then competing to use the rarest hops, most expensive barley, and other specialty ingredients who were then charging you £9 for that beer, and still losing billions of dollars on the deal.

The reality is that you can’t have both Luis Suarez and £1 pints of Ale because while the billionaires are willing to lose some money, they aren’t willing to lose their fortunes to entertain you. You have to pick, do you want the best players in the world at your club or do you want to watch a lesser product? Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, and Man U are directly responsible for the prices that people pay for football tickets. If you don’t like it, boycott Arsenal, sure, but know that unless you stop buying the £400 Levis that Liverpool are selling, and the £12 packet of fags that Man City are selling, it won’t make a damn difference.

Which brings me neatly to the final factor that is driving the strange atmosphere around this game, the imminent closure of the January transfer window and the impending twitocalypse when Arsenal don’t buy every fan’s favorite £50m target. See, on the day that Liverpool fans will be outraged by the ticket prices that they have to pay to see the ghost of Andy Carroll, Arsenal have announced that they are freezing prices for next season. But Arsenal also have £153m in cash reserves, the only team to have such a sum and a sum which will be significantly higher the next time the club release the financials owing to several great commercial deals they have just inked.

So here we have a team who charge the highest prices, who have the biggest cash reserves, and you know what Arsenal fans want? Lower ticket prices, sure, but even more than that they want a big fuck signing. And they want it now.

So, what I’m hoping is that at the same moment the Liverpool supporters unfurl their banner about the “working class game” the Arsenal fans start chanting “spend some fucking money”. Because at that moment, irony will curl up in a ball and just die.

Meanwhile, I suppose a football game contested between multimillionaires will continue unabated.

*I believe I was the first to refer to 4th place as a trophy and even if I wasn’t and some minor blog beat me to it by a few weeks back in 2009 I’m still claiming it as my own.

Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool – surely not 36 more like this

Arsenal’s bizarre season trundled to its first loss as Liverpool took all three points from Emirates stadium today thanks to an own goal by Aaron Ramsey and a second from some slick interplay between Lucas, Miereles, and Suarez.

During Arsene Wenger’s 15 year tenure, Arsenal have long been hailed for their attacking prowess and teams have rightly felt scared to open up to the Gunners, especially when they were at home. But, as I highlighted in my By the Numbers column on Arseblog News, in two games this season Arsenal have managed a grand total of five shots on goal, scored zero goals, and have now allowed Liverpool to come to their home and take three points for the first time since Y2K was a concern.

It’s an incredible turnaround for a team which has averaged 6.6 shots on goal per game over the last five years. That they could manage only one shot on goal in the entire first half, which was a speculative long-range strike from 19 year old debutant Emmanuel Frimpong, is all the evidence you need to see that this is an Arsenal team struggling to create chances.

Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie cut lonely figures up top and Walcott in particular was kept very quiet by one time rumored Arsenal fullback target Jose Enrique. Walcott was held to a mere 11 touches in the first half and managed to complete just two passes in that 45 minutes. All totaled he ended the day with 33 touches, 15 passes, 0 for 6 on crosses, and 0 for 1 on long balls. A terrible day at the office.

But the entire attacking unit struggled as evidenced by the fact that Thomas Vermaelen led Arsenal with three shots. Samir Nasri was Arsenal’s most dangerous player and his incisive dribbles cut through the Liverpool midfield but inevitably, they seemed to be met with the defensive wall of Lucas and the Liverpool back four.

Most of Arsenal’s offensive ineptitude was down to the manner in which Lucas and Adam bossed the very young Arsenal midfield. Lucas led all players with 12 tackles and matched Arsenal’s best (Frimpong) with 4 interceptions. Charlie Adam, meanwhile, kept Liverpool ticking over with a dizzying array of passes.

Arsenal supporters will rightly point to the fact that both Liverpool goals had a hint of offside. And after the match Wenger pointed out that it was harsh to lose the way that they did. But the offside calls would have at most saved Arsenal a single point, it was the lack of creativity up front that should have most Gooners concerned. If Nasri moves on to Manchester City this week then where will Arsenal look to to create in the midfield? Surely, they can’t pin all of their hopes on Jack Wilshere coming good.

Perhaps Jack Wilshere will have a break out season and score 10 goals and set up an additional 15. But it seems like quite a gamble for a club of Arsenal’s reputation to pin on such a young, untested, player.

That said, one of the brightest spots for Arsenal was exactly that, a young, untested midfielder named Emmanuel Frimpong. Frimpong showed his enthusiasm over getting his first ever professional start for Arsenal by putting himself about in the midfield. But yet, he also showed his inexperience by picking up a stupid yellow card in the 8th minute when he squared up with Jordan Henderson over a throw in. From there on it felt all but inevitable that Martin Atkinson would send him off. After all, Atkinson has flashed 5 reds in his last 5 Arsenal matches, and three consecutive reds to Arsenal in his last three Arsenal home matches.

There was one point in the second half where Frimpong tore through the Liverpool midfield and kicked or pulled everyone in an attempt to win the ball back. I thought for sure Atkinson would give him his orders at that point, but the ref showed some leniency and waited until Frimpong made what could have been a straight red card challenge before awarding the second. He was never going to win the ball, came in high, late, and studs up — it was an easy decision for Atkinson. It was such a bad tackle, that had it been Ryan Shawcross making it, Arsenal supporters would have been baying for blood. Worse, it leaves Arsenal with no holding midfielder going into the game away to Manchester United.

With Frimpong off, Dalglish decided to exploit the lightness of the Arsenal midfield by hauling off Kuyt and Carroll and putting on Meireles and Suarez. Wenger countered by taking off Arshavin and Walcott and bringing on Lansbury and Bendtner. Those four substitutions highlight the comparative depth of the two teams’ squads at this point of the season. Arsenal brought on a Carling Cup player who struggled to get a start at Norwich last season and a wantaway striker who is rumored to be negotiating with teams like Stoke City; Liverpool brought on the MVP of the 2011 Copa America and the 2011 PFA Fans’ Player of the Year.

Arsenal managed to hold on to the draw a mere 8 minutes before Miquel’s blind clearance looped off Ramsey and over a helpless Szczesny. That it looked like Suarez was offside was almost academic. The second goal was also offside but it was Nasri who let Meireles stroll past him while he ball watched. And that is what happens when you put a player on the field who has one foot out the door.

For those looking for positives you could point to the fact that for 85 minutes the team played full throttle. There’s also the fact that this is a young team, with an English core (if that matters to you), who if they can gel might show us something really special. Also, it’s not the fault of players like Henry Lansbury and Miquel that they are forced to play in games like this, and the home support seemed to show they know that. If anything, the club and the manager are the ones to look at to see what’s going wrong at the moment.

There was a time when a loss like this would have made me despondent but that time has long past. For better or worse, I’ve resigned myself to the squad we have. The only thing I hope for is that on September 1 the club explain exactly why they haven’t purchased the players that Arsenal so very clearly need. Fans were told that there was a massive cash reserve and that Arsenal were going to be very active in the transfer market. Was the plan from the start to buy four relative unknowns and sell off one (or more) of the world’s best midfielders?

It’s looking like it’s going to be a very long season. But that might actually be in Arsenal’s advantage. After all there are still 36 games left and by my math there’s still 108 points at stake.