Arsenal Vs Liverpool: 5 things we learned – Sell them all

4. Pressing and beating the press

There was a very clear disparity between these two teams regarding their relative pressing play and beating the press. Liverpool might well be the pressing team in the Premier League. But what is so often overlooked is their complementary play against the press, which was starkly different to that of their visitors here.

The speed of the passing is much quicker, the number of first-time passes is substantially higher, their spacings are excellent, with the full-backs stretching the pitch wide and Xherdan Shaqiri and Roberto Firmino taking up extremely threatening positions in the half-spaces centrally. And then, they ally this with a relentless, intense press that offers little time on the ball and suffocates the opponents of options.

Contrast both elements of play to Arsenal. Not only do they play slowly and ponderously against high-pressing teams, meaning that they struggle greatly to break out with any real attacking foundation to work from, but they also do not press with the same awareness, structure and intensity. They do this kind-of half-press, where they stand near the player but never actually put pressure on the opponent. It looks like they are pressing, but they aren’t. This was the difference between the two teams, and it was concerningly stark.