28 Oct 2024 09:18:43
PickleRick has written an article entitled, Liverpool v Arsenal Review
28 Oct 2024 10:09:20
Declan Rice first half was strangling our midfield and killing McAllister. The injuries in the second half made him more defensive and we could break their walk of 6, as Merino dropped deep too.
Diaz should have done better against Partey but kept playing to his strengths by being physical instead of trying to beat him with skill and kept giving away cheap fouls.
Salah should have scored from the error, goal was gaping and he went near post instead of his favourite side. Mind-boggling decision but he had to act quickly. Still expected him to bury it.
Trent normally gets rinsed by Martinelli, not yesterday. It restricted his movement forward and he was supported by Ibou who was immense but he kept him quiet. His passing was poor (by his standards) but he got an assist and sent Nunez on his way with a beautiful ball for the second equaliser.
McAllister had a bad day at the office. He needs to learn how to play well when being frustrated.
Virgil great game apart from one incident, which lead to Saka’s goal. He must know Robbo’s lacking pace and be ready to step in early doers while Saka is fresh but he is miles off.
Alisson was a big loss. He saves at least one of those two. More than cancels out them missing Saliba.
They didn’t miss Odegaard, as Merino was one of their best players and scored what they thought was the winner.
28 Oct 2024 10:23:36
Konate bailed out Trent time and time again. Trent did nothing other than that one pass. He is a woeful defensive minded right back. Time to accept it.
28 Oct 2024 10:26:35
I think its safe to say neither side played well after the exertions of a week with CL football.
Spot on re Arsenal's mentality. They are so obsessed with gaining small margins from fouls, delaying restarts and faking fouls that they have completely forgotten how to play football.
There's lots to criticise in our setup and performances, but today I'll stick with the positives - I thought Konate, Darwin, Kelleher and Mo were brilliant. The rest were all below par on the day and struggled with the intensity at times.
Stoked with the point and hopefully no new injuries.
Hopefully a completely changed XI for Brighton and some rest for our first team before 3 big games at Anfield in a row.
28 Oct 2024 10:36:40
Great review, Pickle. Bravo, sir. For me, I never believed this nonsense that Arsenal were there for the taking before the game due to injuries. Why? Let me count the ways. They are a desperate team, at home with a lot riding on the game cos they were 6 points behind City at KO. The fans were up for it so it didn't matter to me what their lineup was, I knew it would be a very tough game at the Emirates, as usual. I then saw the lineup and thought NO actual starters were actually missing cos all those who started actually start for them regularly. Go figure.
Now I fully agree with you that we did not start well at all even tho, I expected Arsenal to come out the traps hard. IMO, it is clear to see that Jones and Macca does not work cos they are over all similar players who are great in possession and like to keep the ball. No energy to match what Arsenal was bringing hence as you you said, we have now see why Szobo is very important to this team and he helped change the game when he came on.
Robbo on the goal? Shocking. I don't care what anyone says (and I saw a lot of fans not willing to criticise him BUT I will), at the end of the day in footie you have to win your 1 v 1 duels, end of. Everyone knows that Saka wants to go left YET Robbo just recklessly dives him like a headless chicken, takes himself out of the play and Saka scores. That's ALL on Robbo, IMO.
For us, I felt after we levelled things up, we were poor. Just hoofing it long and most importantly, losing 2nd and 3rd balls for fun which led to silly fouls hence, the set piece leading to the second goal. We did better in the second stanza and we took advantage of our moments and levelled up.
All in all, we can always play better BUT we never wavered, stayed with it, made the changes required and got the point our mentality, fight and determination deserved, something we all would have taken before kick off so Im good with it.
{Ed025's Note - they were missing Odegaard and Saliba Oli who are 2 of their main players mate...go figure.. :)
28 Oct 2024 10:47:48
Wow, Harry is back in full force today. You usually come back only after a loss but I guess after going on a winning run where you went absolutely missing, a draw is good enough for you to come back and troll this site again :)
28 Oct 2024 10:53:56
Ed025 never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
{Ed025's Note - very true JK..
28 Oct 2024 11:03:53
It is simply nauseating Dracred.
The Man City page is pretty quiet so he has to keep himself busy somewhere.
28 Oct 2024 11:18:30
Ed025, we were missing Jota and Alisson though who are two of our main players.
Their only other player missing was Califiori but if they want to talk squad players as well we were without Elliott, Bradley and Chiesa.
The way I see it is both teams were missing 2 of their best starting XI and both teams then made 4 substitutions so you can argue both teams finished the game without 6 first choice players. I fail to see the "poor old us" argument from Arsenal. I'd much rather be missing a CB and a luxury AM than my best CF and the best GK in world football.
A draw was a fair result in the end and both teams were missing players so I don't even consider that as a remote excuse. Arteta is just trying to do an EtH and make up excuses in my opinion. The sad part is that the Arsenal fans are actually buying them. He must know he can't keep coming 2nd and celebrating the "we gave it a good go" award. So he's clearly opting for the Siege Mentality approach of us against them!
{Ed025's Note - i was only addressing the point that they were not missing any regular starters MK, i agree that the result was fair mate..
28 Oct 2024 11:21:54
Is ultra violet harry these days?
I didn't think Trent had a great game and there was a moment in the second half where he seemed to lose his head for no reason when we had the ball then 5 seconds later he got the ball looked around didn't see much on and completely messed up a Hollywood ball and gave it into midfield in dangerous area.
I was absolutely livid at that moment and it's not acceptable and there was another attack late on for arsenal where he was out of position from the start and made no effort to get back into position which is again for me unforgivable given state of the game.
Bar those 2 moments for me personally I thought he had a good game they got nothing out of the right hand side for the first hour at least anyway and up until then would have said he was having a good game defensively and a bad one offensively and then almost swapped that around for the last 20-30 mins.
28 Oct 2024 11:57:26
Frustrating to see Trent drift into midfield from arnd the 70min mark, where what we need is more width to pull arsenal around.
Do not think it was tactical as Slot seldom have him invert.
28 Oct 2024 11:42:12
Ahh fair point Ed025, I didn't read Oli's post! Yeah not sure what he was smoking saying they didn't miss anyone!
28 Oct 2024 12:26:37
Ed25, read my post again before you start agree with someone who is insinuating I am lyning. Of course Saliba and Odegaard was out. My point was of the 11 that started, NONE of them were actual squad players who normally never start for them, was there?
Hence, all the players who started for them are actual, regular starters. Also, Partey plays RB for them and White is a CB who is the starting RB who is a CB by trade. So where are the squad players who started for Arsenal? Also, what is the point you are missing in what I posted?
{Ed025's Note - come on Oli you posted something that was not true mate, anyone with half a brain knows that Odegaard and Saliba are 2 of the first names on the team sheet for Arsenal so to say "NO actual starters were missing" is a lie!..
28 Oct 2024 12:47:57
"I fail to see the "poor old us" argument from Arsenal. "
The exact pont I was trying to make cos that whole narrative was mad and frankly, disingenuous.
You just made it better than I did. Bravo, sir.
28 Oct 2024 14:16:24
I love it when Oli says things like 'I don't care what anyone says'. You wouldn't think a forum is the best place for someone like that, would you?
Odegaard and Saliba would have started yesterday, Oli. So two of Arsenal's team yesterday wouldn't have started had they been available. The same as Kelleher wouldn't have started even though he has started a lot of games for us.
Just admit you were wrong, my guy.
28 Oct 2024 18:15:16
Trent went for the hollywood ball and got it horribly wrong many times. It got to a point I was thinking is he doing this to just go against the managers style of play. It was seriously doing my nut in.
28 Oct 2024 18:51:42
Ed25, I can see why you think that cos clearly, I did not explain my point in the right way and that's MY fault. So let me explain. With all the huge bluster we heard by many an Arsenal fan about the injuries and suspension they had pre game, you would think that they would have to dig deep into their reserves to get replacements in like we did often last season with playing the kids.
Suddenly when the lineup comes out, we see that Timber (a starter) replaces Calafiori, Ben Wite (a starting RB who is a CB by trade and who the Arsenal fans say is a very good CB) comes in for Saliba, Partey (who starts frequently at RB in order to invert) starts at RB and then, Trossard (another starting forward) had beens starting in the 10 since Odegaard was out. So essentially, the missing starters were replaced with other starters accustomed to playing these postions regularly already this season and last season.
It's not like they started bench guys/ academy kids guys like a poor Kiwior at CB or Zinchenko at LB, did they? Hence with these starters ready to step in, my point was that the whole "Oh, poor us. Look at our injuries" schtick seemed whierd and weak before the game as if they were getting their excuses in early on.
Once again, I know I did not articulate my point well but that does not mean I lied intentionally about Saliba and Odegaard cos that would make no sense. Hope this clarification helps. Cheers, man.
{Ed025's Note - i dont have a problem with that Oli, the guys that came in were hardly squad players thats true mate, of course Odegaard and Saliba enhance them but you were also missing Jota and Alisson which sort of evens things up..
28 Oct 2024 20:30:40
Playing with semantics here guys. None of City, arsenal, ourselves or any apparent “big team” has a bond fide starting XI. In saying that, I get what you’re saying Oli. It’s not like arsenal were trotting out their version of Hendo/ Fabinho or Phillips/ Williams at CB.
Injuries part and parcel of the season and teams have to just manage as best.
29 Oct 2024 05:23:58
I’d say if you take the four of them - Ali, Saliba, Odegaard and Jota - I think in that order they were the biggest ‘miss’ for the game. Ali is the best in the world in his position. Saliba is a level or two down, Odegaard probably a couple of levels down and Jota a further level down. I suspect that Ali would have made it a harder target for Saka to hit than CK did.
As I said in a different thread, Arsenal played a canny PR game before the match and made it sound like they were going to struggle to field a team.
Again, as I’ve said, it was a poor game to watch but if Arsenal had won Arteta would have played up the ‘our second team beat the best they had to offer’ angle for all it’s worth.
It wasn’t a riveting watch but it was a better result for us than for them. We won’t face many harder matches this season, particularly away from home.
29 Oct 2024 10:08:46
Ed25, thanks for your grace and understanding. That's all I was saying. The media narrative the days leading to the game was just pathetic and weak. That was my only issue with the Arsenal PR machine.
@Faith, spot on, mate. It's not like they had to start Williams/ Phillips at CB like we did when ran out of CB's that one season, right? I personally no longer moan/ talk about injuries hence, I never mentioned the guys we had out. If our squad can't take the hit then, that's on us, period.
@WDW, exactly. That is what Arteta would have done had they won and so would many of their fans cos you know, these specific Arsenal fans are right about everything and wrong about nothing hence, NO responsibility nor accountability taken cos the excuses are always at the ready.