Arsenal: 4 positives from the 4-0 Liverpool hammering

3. Nuno Tavares & Sambi Lokonga’s First Half

Remove the second half from the equation. Wipe it off the face of the earth. What happened to and with both Nuno Tavares and Sambi Lokonga after the break was a cold, hard lecture in Premier League football.

Both had horror second halves. They’re young, they’ll learn from it, move on.

As for the first halves, plenty of positives can be taken from their individual performances. Neither were spectacular, but they both played with energy and courage. In Nuno’s case, he had barely put a foot wrong up until his mistake for the goal.

He ran the touchline, dug in to cover Salah, made underlapping runs and got himself into good positions to withstand what Liverpool threw at him. He was fearless.

As for Sambi, the complete lack of Thomas Partey in the game meant he was left almost to hold the midfield on his own. Liverpool had marked the Ghanaian out of the game and wanted centrality from Arsenal to go through Sambi, and while in an attacking sense he struggled to offer a lot against the hosts’ lethal press, he never shied away from receiving the ball.

Slow in transitioning in the early parts of the half, he grew into the game and started making first time passes around people in the way everyone had hoped Partey would. He wasn’t exceptional and in general the midfield was lacking, but he did some elements very well with his midfield partner nowhere to be seen.

On reflection of the performance, there is no greater example of a ‘game of two halves’ in regards to individuals’ displays. There is a lot to be encouraged about by Sambi and Nuno in that first half before inexperience took precedence. That should be the main focus, not what came after.

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