LIVERPOOL FLOP - IS IT BACK ON?
Yesterday at 01:31 AM
So let me get this straight…
Liverpool put out a statement before the second safety check to indicate they were in great shape for the game, and it should go ahead (pressuring the local council after doing the opposite for the Everton game where they had no prep).
They did that because they knew United were at their lowest ebb of the last 20 years. Pushing the game would give them time to regroup. It was all but guaranteed that United would get utterly shellacked at Anfield.
Destroyed.
Finished.
Hide-behind-the-couch-because-daddy-is-getting-beaten-up-by-your-sisters-boyfriend-because-he-told-him-not-to-smoke-at-the-dinner-table-levels of embarrassment.
Liverpool are in the best form they’ve been in for 5 years.
United have broken records this month for losing games.
They have a points total so low at this stage of the season that 4 teams have been relegated from this position.
Liverpool inexplicably had 7 days to prepare for this game (Arsenal in the same comps as them had to play with 3 days prep against a team that had 5), one more day than United.
… and they drew.
Liverpool were dead on their feet for 90 minutes.
United didn’t baton down the hatches, they came to play, and got in behind them countless times.
Liverpool had to be saved by PGMOL, again. The refs; clearly on alert after David Coote gave the impression there was some bias against Liverpool, overturned Michael Oliver’s clear view of an accidental handball from De Ligt. It was a 50/50 decision… do you go with the high hand as an issue and award Liverpool a pen, or do you go with ‘too close to react (which it was)’ and not give it.
Of course… Oliver went with the penalty. Who was on VAR? Chris Kavanaugh, the guy who sent off Declan Rice off for nudging the ball away with his back turned.
That penalty put Liverpool 2-1 up. It was nearly a switch the TV off moment, but United kept on fighting and got the breakthrough late on when Amad scored a lovely goal.
The linesman was clearly team Liverpool, calling Garnacho offside despite being 2 yards on. The same guy let Robertson manhandle Amad for about 15 seconds without raising a flag, forcing Oliver to act. Then, in a last gasp attack, ZIrkzee worked magic out on the wing, cut a perfect ball in into Harry McGuire, but the big man flew it over the bar. A shocking miss.
The deliciousness of the result didn’t stop there. Jamie Carragher spent the whole game slagging off Trent, clearly on the say-so of the LFC higher-ups. Liverpool fans were going after him when he arrived at the bench after the game, and there were unconfirmed rumors that a very angry VVD went off at him and Darwin in the dressing room after the game. Their captain certainly went after the squad as a whole in his Sky interview.
Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen should take some responsibility for going after the academy product so hard in the week. How did they think that’d play out for them?
Now the question is… how will the rest of the team react to this behavior? Will their fans come for Salah at some point… he was absolutely anonymous.
It really doesn’t take much to knock a high-performance winning machine off course. Liverpool have some big distractions. Their mouthpieces legends aren’t helping things. Nor is their truth right now: Once you’ve handed your notice in, it’s really hard to maintain fu*ks. Liverpool has 2 players confirmed on notice, one has already dropped his level, and he’s one of their magic men.
Anyway, that dreadful performance might give some of the Arsenal critics a shot of reality. Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle, Arsenal, and Liverpool were all dead on their feet this week. It’s not a desire thing, it’s a fixture pile-up thing. It’s getting out the backend of a nightmare month. It’s the weight of playing against really well-coached teams every week.
Since the international break Arsenal have played 12 games, scored 32 goals, and conceded just 9.
Our unbeaten Premier League run now extends to 10 games. 4 draws and 6 wins. One of those draws was all on PGMOL.
In all competitions we’re unbeaten in 13 games. 33 goals. Conceded 10.
The worst performance we’ve had during this whole run was Brighton. Our second worst was probably Palace and we won that game handsomely. Didn’t have the special sauce against Fulham and Everton. 2 results that happen during a season. 2 results that would have different conversations behind them if PGMOL hadn’t cost us 12 points so far this season.
For additional context, Odegaard didn’t train the day before Brighton because he was ill. Martinelli and MLS were benched because they’d been ill. Declan and Trossard were suffering the dregs of illness. No Kai. No Timber. No Saka.
… and you want to talk to me about how Arteta should have to coach more than a 1-0 just in case PGMOL drop ANOTHER never-been-seen before horroshow?
Can’t have it. Let’s see Arsenal and the rest of the Premier League clubs get together and address this problem rather than imagining a world where Arsenal have to compete to a different standard because refs historically don’t like us and treat us differently.
We’re back in the title race, even if the chances are monstrously slim. No blood was drawn this weekend. 9 points is the gap we have to close. If we’re 5 or 6 points behind them heading into April, we can do it. Tall ask considering our issues, but Premier League seasons are all about the grind. We’ve not been at peak this year, but if PGMOL hadn’t interfered, we’d be level or extremely close to Liverpool right now and we’d be crowing that we’re timing out peak really well. Alas, it’s not that situation.
but.… look at this beautiful graphic I was sent by my brother. Arsenal fans are finally waking up to how rough our fixtures were in the front half of the season.
Liverpool’s next two away Premier League games are against Forest and Brentford away from home. Their run to the end of the season is actually quite disgusting. They have to replay that Everton game in the last-ever Goodison Park derby. They’re still in the League Cup and Spurs will turn a corner because they’re about to play us. They have an FA Cup game against Accrington Stanley, and that means they’re definitely in the next round there.
Remember all the quadruple talk last season for LFC? Remember how all those games eventually toppled them? I do. Not saying it’ll happen for sure. But don’t underestimate how bad being greedy with older players can end.
Arsenal has their own problems. Our right side is now without any right-wingers after Ethan sustained a problem against Brighton. We have a tough League Cup game against an in-form Newcastle, though it has to be said, they have suspensions to key players, and Botman went off in injury time after returning for the first time in a year.
The math you’re not going to want to hear is this: we don’t have the squad to compete for the quadruple. Something has to go. If it doesn’t. We’re going to be in trouble against Spurs next Wednesday and even bigger trouble in the Le Grove Derby against my nemesis, Don Unai.
Something has to give I’m afraid - and it could be a case of fielding a team that won’t lose against Newcastle in the first leg… and maybe something weaker in the FA Cup. You might like an FA Cup run this season, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to tell you to step down because we’ve made our bed with the League Cup this season.
If you need me to scare you into submission, just remember what happened when we chased Europa glory and lost Saliba and Tomi in the same game and then this for the rest of the season.
It doesn’t matter how you feel about the cups. I don’t care if you think it’s arrogance to pass up. The Premier League and the Champions League are all that really matters. It’s a bonus if we get to a League Cup final, but in the grand scheme of things, the trophies players care about the most are the majors.
Only teams that can go for 4 are teams like Chelsea who have two squads or Manchester City, who traditionally have two squads, with £70m players sitting on the bench. That ain’t us right now.
Ok, a lot to digest, but only one day to prepare mentally for Newcastle at home. BIG EVENING. Let’s see what Arteta and the boys can conjure from a pretty decimated squad of players.
P.S. I’ve opened up our reaction podcast from yesterday so you can have a little listen. x
