Arsenal achieved a narrow - and crucial - victory over Liverpool on Sunday. And in a manner that reminded me of the expression: 'the biter; bit'. Although this was pretty much the opposite of that. Because having spent a good part of the season trying to break down low blocks - Coventry, Sunderland, Leeds, Nottingham Forest - Arsenal produced their own version to turn away Liverpool in a match brimming with tension. One thing's for sure - if you're playing against The Arsenal, the last thing you want to do is go a goal down!
There are two ways of looking at the performance; and more specifically the result. So I'll do just that. Because Anfield is a venue at which Arsenal have struggled for years now - and taken some tonkings on the way. So this was definitely another weight off of their shoulders - and another wrong righted by Super Mik.
But first to the team itself; and a squad that must have been reeling from their ignominious exit from the Carabao Cup at the hands of lowly Fleetwood Town on Tuesday evening. Another of those embarrassing exits from cup competitions to go alongside such as Bradford City, Wrexham, York City, Walsall, and cup final losses to the likes of Swindon Town, Luton, Birmingham City and West Ham United. Let's gloss over that, eh...
We saw changes from the previous league game. Timber in for White, Tzolis (apparently somewhat rushed back for the apparently barely fit Eze), and Kai back in for Big Vik. All pretty sensible; but I do have nagging doubts about the solidity in high pressure games of a midfield of Rice, Bruno, Odegaard. I'll return to that later.
For Liverpool, Trey Nyoni was preferred in central midfield to Gravenberch, which was something of a surprise. And the young Englishman made his mark - literally! - in the very first minute with an attack on Martin Odegaard's Achilles tendon, and which was well worthy of a booking (at the very least!). And on 10 minutes a late challenge on Havertz again led to no sanction from referee Madley. By this point he could have been off, and should at least be on a yellow card.
Now, this Nyoni stuff is the area of this particular game's litany of dodgy officiating decisions that will have drawn the least attention. But it did set a tone that suggested that the referee wasn't fully in control of the game; which was being played at a frantic pace.
Arsenal were looking good at this very early stage, and taking the game to Liverpool; and it wasn't long before their ferocious pressing brought dividends. Alisson played an injudicious pass into midfield as Tzolis closed him down and Havertz cut off the easiest passing lanes, Odegaard pressed hard and won the ball off of Jacquet before finding Bruno. He in turn found Madueke on the right and suddenly there was Rice, bursting into space beyond Noni and found with an immaculate lay off. One sweeping pass across the 6-yard box and there was Havertz, who had drifted to the far (left) post from his initial inside right position and who had the simplest of tap ins. A goal of wondrous simplicity and beauty; something that represented everything that Arsenal stand for. There are impossibly hard to play against, find your weaknesses, and pounce. Stunning. Worth noting that whilst Kai has not been anywhere close to his best since the opening game of the season, there is no doubting his knack of scoring important goals. This was another.
But - bizarrely - the flow of the game immediately turned on its head, and for much of the rest of the half Arsenal were under pressure. Look, This Is Anfield, as the sign above the players' tunnel says, and there are many very good reasons why it's a fortress. You'll Never Walk Alone pre-game. The crowd are right on top of you and very noisy. They drive their team on. And Liverpool are pretty good. But...
This Arsenal are a formidable defensive unit. And whilst they rode their luck (Wirtz hit the bar from a free kick, for example), they also did plenty of amazing stuff. Time and time again defenders put themselves in the way of shots and crosses, as the home side found it virtually impossible to get a clear sight of Raya's goal. Bruno once, spectacularly. Gabriel. Timber. Calafiori. Konsa on more than one occasion. And amongst it all Declan Rice was everywhere. The solitary time they did get a clear sight of the whites of Raya's eyes MacAllister, left untracked by Havertz, failed to hit the target with a header from just 10 yards..
The biggest stroke of good fortune was the failure by the officials to do anything about a clear tug on Isak's shirt by Timber, which prevented the forward from getting a header in on goal from 10 yards out. I'm not blaming the referee for not spotting it from where he was positioned (poorly, if you ask me), but the failure by the VAR - our friend Atwell - to spot it was frankly inexcusable. It would have been more obvious had Isak thrown himself to the ground in order to draw attention to the challenge; but he really shouldn't need to do that. This is precisely what VAR is for, but this was ' a right cock-up'. Arsenal got away with one there, for sure.
Not that Arsenal weren't able to create chances themselves. Bruno had a shot on goal deflected away by VVD - the referee failing to spot the deflection and awarding a goal kick - and Timber getting in the way of Madueke's cross shot from close to the bye line and thus denying Kai a tap in second goal, before Rice forced a save out of Alisson.
An excellent half of football all round, with Arsenal doing what they needed to keep the home side out; and not without threat themselves. But the second half - thanks to Arteta's recalibrations, was far less full of jeopardy as Liverpool huffed and puffed to no avail. Indeed, Arsenal had several chances to put the game to bed as they exploited the gaps behind the Liverpool full backs; VVD and Jacquet coming to the rescue, and Alisson making a smart save from a Tzolis shot that actually bore a remarkable similarity to 'that' Arshavin goal against Barcelona all those years ago.
Two further points of note. Firstly, I was delighted to see MLS replace Bruno half way through the half. For me, he offers more structure and solidity than the Brazilian, and is more 'press resistant'; and whilst he did lose the ball once in a difficult spot he feels more defensively reliable. I'm not knocking Bruno's attacking capabilities, by the way - he played his part in the goal, and it is clear that his team-mates believe in his passing ability; their movement when he has the ball at his feet is proof of that. They are excellent alternatives to each other, and there's still Zubi to consider - so Dec doesn't have to play every minute of the season!
The other point was the final officiating flashpoint of the game, with our Argentinian mate MacAllister at the centre of it. He first brought Odegaard down, then leant over the striken Norwegian to taunt him. In the melee that followed, he theatrically threw himself to the floor in order to try to get (the already booked) Madueke sent off. Which could easily have happened; because Madueke had put himself into an unnecessarily difficult spot by putting his head into extremely close contact with MacAllister's. The theatrics were disgraceful, nonetheless - and the authorities need to stamp hard on that sort of behaviour.
Victory was sealed - the first time since 2012 that Arsenal had won at Anfield - a 'mission', as Arteta described it post-game. And there are two clear ways of looking at both performance and result. If you want to heap praise on Arsenal, you can admire the fighting spirit and the refusal to allow the opposition a sniff of your goal. On this occasion, Arsenal reminded the football world that they are probably the very best there is without the ball. If you want to be negative, you could query whether the Champions of England should choose to play that way. But that viewpoint is sour grapes; any excuse to have a dig. You do what to have to do - Liverpool are no mugs, and pressed hard for a large part of the game. All the more remarkable, then, that OPTA registered this game as one where the home side failed to manage a single shot on target.
Anyway, this clears the air and the mind following what happened in midweek. I'm sure that we're more concerned about the red card for Mighty Max than about the result; shocking as it was. And the Gunners now move on to what we ought to expect to be easier tasks - a trip to Prague in the Champions League, followed by a home game with Hull at the weekend. With Mancheater Cheaty having lost on Saturday and Arsenal now three points ahead of them, that game is a chance to cement our position atop the table before the next Interlull.
After which, William Saliba will be back!
COYG!
