Arsenal: Liverpool let-off was bound to happen at some point

Coming off a high-intensity draw against Liverpool, Arsenal were bound to suffer a let-off, and that happened against Sporting CP. Time to recover.

Unai Emery is a high intensity guy. It’s what has so quickly endeared him to Arsenal fans the world over. He has brought an intensity that he then demands of his players and it has driven this club, that has always been talented on paper, to now 15 straight undefeated matches.

The cream of the crop was a 1-1 draw against title-contending Liverpool, a match that could easily have swung either way, but that saw the two sides pitted against each other as equals, and thus the point was shared.

This was a match of such intensity that it seemed inevitable that the Gunners might back off the gas pedal a bit. They always had in the past. After a particularly rousing match, they often fell flat on their faces the next time out.

For the Gunners, that was against Sporting CP. Despite Emery ranting and raving on the sideline, urging his team forward with arm waving and shouting, nothing could propel this team to find their cutting edge and, after just one shot on target, they shared a point with Sporting CP.

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The major bummer was that, had they won the match, they would have secured top spot in the group, which would have allowed them to send the kids out to play in the remaining two fixtures.

But the larger point of the match was that there was a severe let-off in the sharpness of Arsenal’s play, just like the old days, and it was probably caused by that Liverpool match, that had sucked everything out of the club (in a good way).

Emery won’t be happy with that excuse, and he will seek to reenergize the club before the Wolverhampton match on Sunday, but for now, that’s what we can right it off as – the come down after a particularly intense football match.

On the bright side, it still finished 0-0. The best possible thing to happen when your team doesn’t score is to prevent the other team from scoring, and they did that.

All Emery has to do is get the team fit and firing for the Wolves. It’s another match they’ll be expected to win and, going into international break, it’s a match they really need to win, because while we love being undefeated in 15 (and maybe it spoiled us), it’s time to get back to winning.