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Anfield Smash and Grab More Luck Than Judgement for Arsenal against Liverpool
Those Arsenal fans making the trip to Liverpool expecting to see a complete reversal of the demolition we suffered at Anfield last season were left sorely disappointed when the match unfolded yesterday. Looking at the way both teams have played this season Arsenal should have run riot over a Liverpool side that have struggled to defend and looked inexperienced in front of goal. As it was Liverpool should have put the game to bed in the first half and been done with it there.
Possession
Before the weekend’s matches Arsenal were top of the Premier League table for who had kept the most possession in their matches, averaging nearly 60% of the ball in all of their matches. Liverpool, by contrast, had been struggling to keep the ball well by their standards and were averaging just over 50% of the ball.
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However in the match yesterday, Liverpool finished with 63% of the possession and at one point it looked like it could be a lot worse with Arsenal only managing just under 25% of the possession in the opening half an hour. It was a poor show on all accounts regarding keeping the ball.
The first part of this was because we struggled to actually tackle anyone that was on the ball, our defence is so poor at defending man for man it makes me cry a little at the simplicity of it all. Despite having an overall tackle success rate of 42% our defence only had 33%, with Gibbs and Debuchy managing an entirely unimpressive 0% between them. Yes, not a single challenge.
But that wasn’t the main reason we were left chasing shadows at Anfield, it was a simple weakness that Liverpool exploited…
Midfield Setup
Arsenal are well known for favouring attacking midfielders, and in my eyes Rodgers played the perfect game and his players let him down when it comes to the result.
Arsenal decided to play at Anfield with only 1 defensive midfielder and 5 players in front of this man. Foolish. Naive. Downright Arrogant? Whatever the adjective it was stupid to think this would be successful. Yes Liverpool have been struggling, but take a look at the teams that have beaten Liverpool this season.
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Newcastle, Palace, West Ham, even Manchester United. All these teams looked to absorb the Liverpool pressure and hit when the time was right and it worked for them. Liverpool have struggled to break down organised defences this year and we gave them a wide open one when we should have been looking to sit compact and use our pace on the attack.
As it was Flamini was left running side to side like a demented high school student trying to improve his shuttle runs as he tried to pick up both of Liverpool’s Central Attacking Players. The other five players wondering around ahead of the ball could do nothing. Against the better teams away from home I do feel you need to deploy 2 defensive midfielders. Oh, that’s right, we don’t actually have any others because the transfer policy at Arsenal is completely flawed.
Defending
Not for the first time this season Arsenal’s defending made me want to scream at both the players and the coaching team, because quite simply it’s atrocious. There was no commitment or desire from any team member in the back four and I’m just going to leave this picture here to highlight that point.
What is Mertesacker doing here? Really? How are we meant to keep out a team that’s actually good in the air?
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