09 Jan 2026 22:58:06
I was dreading the Arsenal game. I honestly thought they would wipe the floor with us. After 20 mins I felt it was any moment now. Then lfc strung a few passes together gained a Litle confidence. Bradley's attempt hitting the bar again helped.
I know the pundits say it was boring and so on, but I felt we had a descent 2nd half. Without threatening much. Over the pitch everybody seemed focused and on task. Both full backs and Frimpong had much better games.
Macalister up to his old tricks peed me off. Pedestrian at best.
But imo after not expecting anything I was more than satisfied
So gutted for Bradley. I do not accept Martinelli didn't know he was Bradley hurt. I would have chinned him without a second thought in my day.
God wish we had a Steve McMahon now.
09 Jan 2026 23:52:54
Arsenal don't wipe the floor with many teams, Chrisymate. They aren't set up to outclass the opposition, and they'd lose more games even if they were. They are a team set up to never be in vulnerable positions defensively in any situation and winning games through attrition, but this has real consequences for their attacking play - they are awful at it.
Awful. On current form, they will be the first champions since Leicester to score fewer than 2 goals a game. Now, this season, who cares if they win the title? Well, they aren't winning another one doing this - if it hadn't been for the frankly atrocious performance of Arne Slot this season, they wouldn't be leading this one either.
10 Jan 2026 00:05:14
Steve McMahons wouldn't last 10 minutes now unfortunately.
10 Jan 2026 04:40:10
i was disappointed, because i felt like arteta planned the game as if we were no 1 in the table.
eventhough it was not a full squad if we had brought the game to then, we could have won the game. but we were playing the slow possession game, this season reminds me so much of brendan rodgers, but with a better overall squad.
10 Jan 2026 05:13:29
To be fair it was two risk averse teams against each other, we didn't try to go for it when we were on top, arsenal's style of play is so methodical but so unadventurous, they never try to play a risky ball down the middle or do anything other than try to play a perfect ball down the flanks at the exact right moment, they relented in the press second half because they were terrified of getting caught in behind, they are champions in the making but they certainly don't play like it, it's football motivated by fear rather than the will to dominate.
They bought a central striker who is just there to feed on scraps whenever they fall to him and try to occupy defenders to get them away from saka because he certainly isn't there to run in behind, to be a target man to play others in or be part of the build up, he is so peripheral to the team and looks so lost every time I see him play for them (mind, our plan with isak is equally mystifying) .
We are pretty much the same way at the moment but we went through a catastrophic and traumatic run and are missing all our starting attacking players, not sure what their excuse really is. If we had ekitike in that game or frimpong made a better decision once or twice and delivered a decent ball I'm pretty certain we would have won it.
{Ed025's Note - i cant argue with any of that PB..
10 Jan 2026 06:29:39
No disrespect to Macca, who was brilliant here - but i'd love to see Ronnie Whelan in today's game.
I think he would an absolute superstar.
{Ed025's Note - Ronnie was very underrated for me Tuzza, but Macca was far from brilliant mate he was half decent but still a dirty stinking cheat mate..
10 Jan 2026 07:30:48
Haha. I love it when you sit on the fence Ed.
Ok, we'll agree to disagree on Macca, but I totally agree on Ronnie - he was vastly underrated. Perfect 6/ 8 hybrid in today's jargon.
{Ed025's Note - he was the heartbeat of that side for me Tuzza, a lot of my friends who were reds were not big fans of him actually...i dont know why..
10 Jan 2026 07:31:55
Great player Ronnie Whelan.
10 Jan 2026 09:44:33
Some player ronnie whelan, could do everything and always a big goal in him.
Would've won goal of tournament at euro 88 only for van Basten wonder strike in the final.
10 Jan 2026 10:30:02
He was indeed. Bob didn't make too many mistakes in the transfer market back then and he was a snip from Home Farm, a Dublin team, A great player for Liverpool and a great player for ROI too. Terrible commentator though!
10 Jan 2026 11:14:25
PB, we were never going to go for that game regardless of whether we had our CF's available or not, considering the way we have been playing. It simply wouldn't have happened hence with CF's missing, no chance on earth, for real.
Now what I was surprised about with Arsenal (and their fans were fumming about this too) was that they didn't go for the game either which suited LFC to a T. Not only did couldn't/ wouldn't step it up, Slot went 1 v 1 in the second half which was Arteta's kryptonite already at Anfield this season.
From the moment he couldn't figure it out and with us outnumbering them in midfield (due to the lineup) and with us picking them off with Frimpong, I think Arteta just gave up and just went for the draw.
As for Gyokeres, I have always believed that Arteta's style does not suit a traditional CF esp. one who needs a lot of service. It fits more of a false 9 like Havertz. Or a CF/ winger who can drop in and orchestrate like Jesus.
10 Jan 2026 11:18:27
Ronnie Whelan was a great player for us in the 1980s.
10 Jan 2026 11:43:41
Patrick you say we didn't go for it but in the same breath say a couple of better decisions by Frimpong and we could've won it.
The fact is we were dominant in the second half and got into some great positions to win the game but the final ball was off. Wirtz could've also had a penalty after a mazy run.
This does not suggest we were playing for a draw or not going for it. We were trying to win but Arsenal are an extremely defensive team and have the best defensive record in the league. If we had gone gung ho and got caught on the break these pages would be going mental about how naive we were.
It was a decent performance, away from home against the title favourites. We should all be satisfied with that and hope we can now take confidence from it moving forward.
10 Jan 2026 09:39:26
Ronnie Whelan was absolutely brilliant. I loved him but you're right Ed025 he never really got the praise he deserves.
{Ed025's Note - he done all the messy jobs Barry and was the glue that allowed the others to express themselves mate..
10 Jan 2026 10:21:36
Was Gary Neville sighting violence on Thursday night with his comments over Martinelli incident some one from liverpool team take a red card! If so can someone inform the police so they knock on his door at1am in the morning and arrest him. YNWA.