Arsenal show willingness to suffer in battling Liverpool display

Arsenal traveled to Anfield to take on Liverpool in the first leg of its Carabao Cup tie with an under strength side. Several stars were missing, including Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe and Thomas Partey, just to name a few.

Yes, Liverpool were missing a couple of players too, but as a whole Arsenal was weakened more than the hosts.

A trip to Liverpool is daunting for most teams on the planet, but for the Gunners, there is more of a sense of trepidation as Anfield has not been a happy hunting ground over the years. Already faced with an uphill task, the visitors’ challenge of getting anything from the game was made even more difficult thanks to Granit Xhaka’s first-half red card.

As we saw earlier in the year against Manchester City, once Arsenal went down to 10 men, away from home, they folded. Despite a positive start, the walls quickly came closing in. The immediate thought once the Swiss international was shown his marching orders was a Liverpool training exercise along with three or four goals to make the second-leg tie at the Emirates purely academic.

Arsenal show a willingness to suffer for their teammates, Arteta, and the club with battling Liverpool display in the Carabao Cup

However, as we have seen this season under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal is willing to suffer, unlike squads of previous years. Often bullied off the ball, scared to play their football and effectively submitting to their challengers, previous iterations of Arsenal would have wilted under the pressure and left with an ugly scoreline.

But with Arteta, the Gunners now have a viable defense, along with a star keeper. It is all well and good to have high quality players, but there needs to be togetherness, toughness, and a will to make a stand when the club needed it most. Arsenal’s moment came after 23 minutes.

Down to ten men away to Liverpool just following the embarrassing loss to Nottingham Forest, there was a choice to be made for every Arsenal player taking the field. Fold and many will say ‘well it’s Liverpool, you’re under strength, we can see why they were blown off the park’. Instead they went the opposite.

The entire group got the grit between their teeth and actually relished the challenge of being a man down to one of the best teams on the planet.

Liverpool dominated possession and put Arsenal under pressure, but such was the visitors’ defensive solidarity, smartly revised tactical approach, and determination for this not to be a repeat of previous horror shows, that a weakened Arsenal team did not allow a shot on target from a rampant Liverpool team until the 92nd minute.

Every player gave everything they had and left nothing out on the pitch. Gabriel Martinelli slumped to the turf at full-time after another superb physical effort, Benjamin White was near perfect, Bukayo Saka showed a maturity far beyond his years and dug his heels in for the team. The list could go on.

This type of performance is now typical of what Arteta wants from his team, and despite often being criticized for his tactics, the Spaniard got it right in the circumstances against the Reds. However, despite Arteta’s success, it all boiled down to the players’ willingness to execute the plan and give more than they needed to physically.

Just what the recovery is like for the club’s north London derby will be critical as Arteta will be really shorthanded player-wise after such an incredible physical exertion. While they may slip up here and there due to their inexperience, as a whole, this Gunners team has the defensive steel and team solidarity to match it with any team in the Premier League.

The ‘soft’ Arsenal days have already been long gone but are now firmly a thing of the past, with a newfound look and togetherness that we have not seen in over a decade. This Gunners team is taking new ground and winning many people over in the process.