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Resilience and Exuberance to the Fore

Apr 19th, 2023 by

Emotional resilience under stress. Arsenal could use a bit of it at the moment, or maybe I am projecting my nerves onto the team.  In either case, it is fair enough for people to point out that successive surrenders of two goal leads is not optimal performance for a title-contending side, no matter whether nerves were the root cause of surrendering those leads. But Arsenal, having played so well all season, remain top of the league so everything is still in play. The question at hand is: Is Arsenal’s young team resilient enough to withstand the stress they find themselves under as results have suddenly stopped going their way? Certainly, the team must demonstrate their resilience Friday evening at home against Southampton to maintain their title aspirations against the league’s bottom side. But Southampton, lest we forget, took two points off Arsenal in this season’s reverse fixture, and they are in a fight for their Premier League lives, so don’t expect the Gunners to have an easy time of it.

The opposition

At season’s start the media declared Arsenal to have the league’s youngest team, but a few months on they now have only the second youngest first team (and manager) in the Premier League.  In both cases they have been outflanked by Southampton who have a slightly younger team and manager in 39 year old Rubén Sellés (Mikel Arteta turned 41 in March).  In spite of the two sides featuring so many young players, their relative quality varies widely, with Saka, Martinelli, Saliba & Co. competing for the league title and the Saints in distinct danger of relegation unless they pull off a miracle in the season’s last weeks.

Sellés is Saints’ third manager of the season, and their ownership seems to have sensed all along that the club was in grave relegation danger.  In February Sellés replaced Nathan Jones, who succeeded Ralph Hasenhuttl after the latter was sacked in November.  Sellés had been one of Jones’s assistants, but became caretaker boss when Jones was sacked, and was appointed on a (more) permanent basis after his first game in charge, a 1-0 victory at Chelsea.  Saints lost seven of eight league matches under Jones, as opposed to only six defeats in nine league matches under Hasenhuttl, but both managers departed with the club mired in the relegation spaces.  Despite managing a draw with Arsenal at home in October, nearly all else has been a bit rocky for the South Coasters, who always managed to avoid relegation under Hassenhuttl with 16th, 11th, and two 15th-placed finishes in his four seasons at the club.

The Athletic recently projected Southampton to finish rock bottom in two different computer simulations that gave them only a 12% to a 21% chance of avoiding relegation.  Saints have been bottom for a number of weeks now but seem to be capable of mustering a semblance of life, as they showed on March 18 in coming back from a two-goal deficit to draw 3-3 against a ragtag outfit from the outer reaches of North London, causing such a ruckus that the ragtag outfit soon became a managerless ragtag outfit.  After that game Saints’ ex-Gunner Theo Walcott commented: “we stuck with our identity and what we wanted to do in the game and we got our reward in the end (so) hats off to the lads because to come back against a so-called top four team shows we’ve got a lot in that dressing room.”

But getting to the root cause of Saints’ inability to move up the table, in the same article The Athletic reported that no Premier League side scored fewer than Southampton’s 12 goals since Hassenhuttl’s departure, and Saints failed to add to that total in last weeks 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace. But Southampton have garnered 13 of their 23 points away from home, including such recent results as the 1-0 win over Chelsea in February, and a goalless draw at Manchester United on March 12.

Arsenal XI

With no clear return date for Saliba at this stage, Rob Holding should continue in the heart of the Arsenal defence despite 21st Century Gooner’s interesting suggestion that the more mobile Jakub Kiwior should be tried in that position. Oleksandr Zinchenko is expected to return from a muscular problem replacing Kieran Tierney in the nominal left-back slot. Despite their disappointing performance at the London Stadium, I don’t expect any other changes to the team that faced West Ham on Sunday:

Ramsdale
White — Holding — Gabriel — Zinchenko
Xhaka — Thomas — Ødegaard
Martinelli — Jesus — Saka

There’s no real need to tell you again, but three points or bust is the order of the day. A sustained good and exuberant performance over 90 minutes is close behind, since we really need to get the team back into title-chasing form less than five days before our season-defining clash with the expensively assembled oilers at the Emptihad.

But for now, focus only on Southampton, and enjoy the game, ‘holics.

Posted in Match Preview | 58 Drinks »

Irons Cast Hammer Blow to Young Guns

Apr 17th, 2023 by

Arsenal threw away two vital points in their pursuit of the Premier League Title on Sunday afternoon. It remains to be seen whether the wound is fatal or not but with the title deciding clashat East Manchester Oil Incorporated only ten days away, this blow could hardly have come at a worse time for Arsenal. Concerningly, it is the second game running where we have let a two goal lead slip. Arsenal have shown very few chinks in their armour this season but are the cracks finally starting to show?

In terms of team selection, Arteta was forced into a tweak at left back with the injured Zinchenko replaced by the buccaneering Scotsman, Tierney. And the game could not have started better for the Gunners. Following some intricate play on the right, Odegaard played in Ben White who flashed a delicious ball across the face of the goal for Gabriel Jesus to tap home his fourth goal in three starts. At least someone has found form at the business end of the campaign. And three minutes later it got even better for the Arsenal. Martinelli sent in a sumptuous cross for Martin Odegaard and the skipper calmly volleyed home a controlled finish. We were in complete control of the game. And then we hit the self-destruct button. Partey needlessly conceded possession in the midfield to future Gooner, Declan Rice, who played in Paqueta. There shouldn’t have been any danger, but Gabriel slipped at the worst possible moment, and despite his desperate attempts to pull out, his Brazilian compatriot clipped his knee and tumbled over for a penalty. Said Benrahma stepped up to send Ramsdale the wrong way. Talk about déjà-vu!

We then seemed to just stop playing. We were able to make it through to half time, but it was after the break where things really began to unravel. West Ham continued to dominate us, and we struggled to find an answer. We were given a golden opportunity to silence the home crowd and restore our two goal cushion when Antonio handled following a corner. Saka stepped up to take. Here we go. This to all but end the game and pick up a vital three points on the road. But excruciatingly, Saka blazed it wide. It was a poor penalty and there is no getting way from that. It was his first miss for us and his first since the Euros. As soon as he missed it there was a nagging feeling that it would come back to bite us as I voiced to CER at the time. And I was unfortunately proved right just a few minutes later. We initially cleared well following yet more West Ham pressure but our line was far too slow to break out and Jarrod Bowen crashed the ball home at the near post. 2-2. And, in all honesty, it was the least the Hammers deserved. But more to the point it was the least Arsenal deserved too. We had needlessly let them back into a game which we had complete control over. But at least there was still well over half an hour to respond. Would Arsenal not at last up the tempo? (Narrator’s voice): “The Arsenal did, indeed, not up the tempo”. Instead we seemingly decided playing ninety percent of our passes backwards and sideways, mostly in our own half, was the answer. It was indeed the answer. Just not to the question “ how can we have any chance of winning this game?”. We failed to fashion a single clear cut chance for the rest of the game. It was in fact The Hammers who came closest to finding a winner with Antonio seeing a header crash off the bar. Just like last week we were lucky to come away with a point when we had initially put ourselves in a great position to take all three. Infuriating. So now the post mortem will begin while we prepare for a must win clash against a hapless Southampton side on Friday night. A Friday night fixture against the division’s basement side in front of our own fans and the Sky cameras with the whole world watching? What could possibly go wrong?

Posted in Match Report | 16 Drinks »

Hammer time: control and consistency, but hold the chaos

Apr 15th, 2023 by

After last Sunday’s palpitations, a routine 5-0 win at the London Stadium this coming Sunday would be just what the doctor ordered. But as CER astutely headlined his Liverpool match report, no one said this was going to be easy.

The record shows that we have outstanding league away form against West Ham United — P26 W14 D9 L3 in the Premiership era; we have lost more often at home to them in that time, five times.

The most recent defeat at their gaff was in January 2019. A 19-year-old Declan Rice struck his first West Ham goal just after half-time from the edge of our box after Granit Xhaka had headed out a cross from Samir Nasri (remember him and his snood?). 

In 2006, it was a Marlon Harewood goal that did for us, and, in 1999, a Paolo Di Canio brace against the run of play in a game in which both sides ended up with ten men. The latter two defeats were at the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park, a nasty, cramped place even before it became all-seater in the 1990s, and even when Ron Greenwood’s Moore-Peters-Hurst team graced it on my first trip in the late 1960s.

Our first league visit to West Ham came in August 1923. The newly promoted Hammers secured their first-ever win in the top flight. Albert Fletcher scored the game’s sole goal. Who? I hear you cry. They probably said the same back then. It was the inside forward’s only goal in his eight-game West Ham career before losing his place in the team and then, after a season with Brentford in the Third Division South, dropping out of the professional game. 

Our keeper that day was Jock Robson, 5’8″ of Scottish athleticism, who kept 35 clean sheets in 101 games. His keeping kept us in the old First Division, given that we escaped relegation by a point in 1923-24 and by a place the season after. 

Robson remained first-choice keeper until Herbert Chapman arrived and bought Bill Harper from Hibernian for a then British record for a goalkeeper of £4,000, £3,995 more than the club had paid for Robson. 

The monks cannot find evidence that we have ever signed a shorter keeper than Robson, although Sheffield Wednesday had one at around the same time, Teddy Davison, who was 5’7″ but good enough to win an England cap.

The August 1923 league game was not our first competitive encounter. That was a January 1906 FA Cup First Round tie that we won after a replay; we would go on to make the semi-finals for the first time. However, the two clubs, born out of works teams on either side of the River Thames — the Thames Ironworks works in Canning Town in West Ham’s case, hence the riveting hammers on their club badge — were already familiar with each other from playing friendlies in the 1890s.

The opposition

Under David Moyes, once touted as the ideal successor to Arsene Wenger, believe it or not, West Ham are underperforming this season. Pencilled in for another top-seven finish this term, they have lost 15 of 29 league games and are three points off the relegation zone, although in 14th place and with a game in hand over the other nine teams scrapping to avoid the drop. With us, ‘Pool and both Mancs still to play, their results against fellow strugglers Palace, Bournemouth, Leeds and Leicester will decide their fate, and likely that of Moyes, though I have a feeling he will leave this summer come what may.

His team comes into Sunday’s game on the back of a hard-fought draw on Thursday in the first leg of their quarter-final in the UEFA tournament for teams whose name contains lots of the consonants that make for a high score in Scrabble. This followed a turgid 1-0 win over slumping Fulham last weekend, in which own goal was the top scorer.

Moyes has won four of his 40 games against us and has yet to beat Arteta, who played 209 games under him at Everton, in their six managerial encounters, losing five. 

He has been switching up his starting formation of late, making five changes for the Fulham game after a 5-1 thrashing by the Barcodes and lining up in a 4-4-2 rather than his preferred 4-2-3-1. Moyes then made six changes on Thursday and played a 4-2-2-2. Many of his first choices started on the bench against KAA Gent in Ghent, suggesting he prioritises the league over Europe.

The names that can be pencilled into Sunday’s team sheet with any confidence are those of Lukasz Fabianski, formerly of this parish, Declan Rice, possibly to be of this parish next season, right-winger Jarrod Bowen, who is their joint top-scorer this season with Said Benrahma, four goals apiece, centre half Kurt Zouma and record signing Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paquetá. Danny Ings, an irritant to us in his Southampton days, will, no doubt, get some minutes, although I would expect Michail Antonio to start up top.

The Arsenal

With Sporting Lisbon making the Europa League quarter-finals trip to Turin in our stead on Thursday, we have had a full week to recover from Anfield. The injury news is marginally improved. Long-term absentees Tomiyasu and Elneny remain just that, and William Saliba’s back remains in limbo; perhaps limbo dancing is what did for it. However, Eddie Nketiah returns to the squad.

I would expect Arteta to start:

Ramsdale

White Holding Gabriel Zinchenko

Partey Ødegaard Xhaka

Saka Jesus Martinelli

Three points are essential, preferably with no alarums. A goal every 15-20 mins would suit us well, letting Arteta get Partey wrapped back up in cotton wool early and give those on the bench some minutes. However, Moyes will have West Ham digging in and scrapping for a point, so it will likely be a lot closer than that. 

Yet, if we can exert the control and consistency that Arteta has sought all season and avoid the chaos of the second half at Anfield, we have the quality to emerge from the London Stadium with a 15th Premier League away win over West Ham.

The ‘holics pound

The gentlemen of the turf have us as short-odds favourites, as might be expected. There is little value to be found in any win unless we score at least four goals. If you think we can stroll it to 5-0, 60s are available. 

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.

Posted in Match Preview | 43 Drinks »

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy….

Apr 10th, 2023 by

We came into the game high on hope, buoyed by 7 consecutive wins. At the same time, despite a curiously poor season, Liverpool had only been beaten twice at home all season:  by Leeds, in the league at the end of October, and then by Real Madrid in the Champions League. Over the season they had beaten Citeh and Newcastle in the league and even high-flying Napoli, highly likely to win the Scudetto this season and with huge talents in Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia. Not to mention the absolute humiliation of United recently by 7-0. Yes it was first vs eighth, but it is Liverpool’s away form which has dragged them down.

We started very brightly with a display of controlled possession. On 8 minutes a breakthrough the midfield, WITH Saka running inside off the touchline to receive a pass from White, saw us drive towards goal, Saka attempting a one-two with Odegaard which was knocked into the path of the onrushing Martinelli to nudge into the net, taking it early and catching the keeper off-guard. A super start.

Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0

Saka and Martinelli were both on the end of rough stuff, indeed perhaps Robertson could have been booked earlier than he was for one particularly late challenge on Saka. This was indicative of the fact that both wingers had their respective full backs on toast.

However, Liverpool, while largely being well marshalled, were not without threat and a smart through ball to Robertson from Fabinho saw the full back running into the penalty area behind Ben White and shooting a foot or two wide. 

Then on twenty-eight, a short pass from Partey to Xhaka on the halfway line in a wide position saw the Swiss put a lovely, chipped pass over the head of Alexander-Arnold for Martinelli to run on to. He checked and saw Jesus had moved onto a position behind Van Dyke in the Liverpool area, with Robertson preoccupied by looking for the run of Saka behind him. Martinelli crossed on his right foot over the head of Van Dyke for Jesus to bury a header, with the hapless Robertson having realised too late what was going on to make a real challenge. The goal was a thing of beauty. 

Arsenal 2 Liverpool 0

We were now playing imperious football and it looked as though we would coast to half time. However, some unnecessary involvement from Xhaka with Alexander-Arnold enabled the Liverpool players to rouse their supporters and the game began to turn. A minute or two later Liverpool progressed the ball down their left, Jones performed a nice back heel into the path of the overlapping Jota who crossed. Henderson, until now only a marginal presence in the game, managed to pull away from Holding and deflect the ball towards the back post. Gabriel was caught out by the deflection and could only manage to knock the ball onto the foot of the onrushing Salah and into the next. It was a real blow towards the end of a first half which we had largely dominated. You could see why Liverpool have been so hard to beat at home.

Liverpool 1 Arsenal 2

On the half-time whistle, there was some handbags as the players left the field. Robertson grabbed the linesman’s arm, after clearly being ignored while attempting to whine for no apparent reason. The linesman threw his arm out to release the grip and caught Robertson on the chin. Cue the kind of bitching which might usually be reserved for, say, an incorrect penalty decision or maybe a VAR “forgetting” to review an offside call. It is not often I agree with Roy Keane but his summation of Robertson as “a big baby” was spot on. The referee rightly booked him. He had transgressed but then wanted to play the victim as a result. Pitiful. In the light of the minimum 8 match ban on Mitrovic for putting hands on the referee the other week, it will be interesting to see how the PGMOL/PL manage to wriggle their way out of imposing a similar ban on Robertson.

Second Half

Liverpool started the second halfas they had finished the first: aggressive and piling on the pressure.

Then we had another of those unintelligible refereeing and VAR decisions. From a Liverpool corner, the ball dropped in front of a group of players. Jota and Holding both set off towards it and Jota went down. Unhesitatingly the referee gave a penalty. Now all the pundits seem united in saying that was a penalty. I just can’t understand it. There is no foul, just two players tangling legs in running for the ball. Even if the referee gives it, surely VAR can see there is no intent and that the referee has got this clearly and obviously wrong. You wouldn’t get that as a pen in park football so for a group of professional officials all to agree that this is a penalty takes incompetence, or worse, to a higher level in my opinion. Compare and contrast with the penalty not given for the foul on Mitoma on Saturday. Quite honestly, what are the individuals on VAR duty doing? Clearly they are either not watching, not using replays or choosing not to apply the rules. Fortunately, Salah managed to miss the target and justice was done.

Liverpool then really began to press and command the game. At the same time, I think Arteta’s post-match description of it as “chaotic” was pretty much spot on. They didn’t so much control the game as have more aggressive forward-playing intent. We took on the role of the counter attacking side and had some good opportunities. However, the fact that we approached the end of the match still ahead was really down to fine goalkeeping from Ramsdale with 2 or three superb saves to deny Salah and Nunez.

After holding on for 86 minutes, the inevitable happened. Alexander-Arnold, another pretty peripheral player and one whose form, as a full back, has fallen off a cliff, nutmegged the clearly exhausted Zinchenko to float a far-post cross headed in by Firmino.

Liverpool 2 Arsenal 2

Despite the lateness of the goal, the game still wasn’t over. From a Salah shot which deflected off Gabriel and was head to nestle into the inside of the top left side netting of Ramsdale’s goal, the Arsenal keeper made a flying intervention of the kind which some of the best keepers in history would have been proud. And then we had a break which only a relatively poor ball from Martinelli to Saka prevented from turning into a genuine match-winning opportunity

Final Score Liverpool 2 Arsenal 2

Conclusions

Unfortunately, now we see the true impact of the Premier League’s continued use of PGMOL to supervise matches. We should have another 2 points. But due to – well, you tell me: Incompetence? Nipping outside for a crafty smoke during the game and missing the action? “Other”? – we were deprived of the two points against Brentford which by rights would have given us the comfortable cushion our performance to date deserves. “Formed in 2001 to improve refereeing standards…” is the first line from the website. Not the PGMOL website. There isn’t one. This is from a PGMOL page on the Premier League website. That’s right. In 2023, the body responsible for overseeing matches has no public face. Curiously, only the Premier League website itself. Sure, timeserving talent vacuum Lee Mason got The Order of the Boot but that only helps the other clubs who would have had to suffer after under the oversight of this curiouslyincompetent troll. There needs to be a cleaning of the Augean stables; the monument to mediocrity or worse that is PGMOL needs to be jet-washed away with extreme prejudice and an entirely new group of people, perhaps not all from a 20-mile radius of one Northwest city, taking its place. Given the money in the Premier League, it is embarrassing that such an approach is needed, if only so that the watching world can continue to have faith in the integrity of the Premier League as a competition.

We are now 6 points in the lead. However, assuming City win their game in hand the title might well be decided at the Etihad at the end of the month. A draw will be enough for us and on the showing today it’s far from impossible for us to achieve it. We still have to go to Newcastle but then City still have to play Brighton and Brentford away, both tricky games. 

Make no mistake, for around 50 minutes of this game we were absolutely battered. Having worked out that Alexander-Arnold and Robertson were well outmatched by Martinelli and Saka respectively, Klopp’s trump card was to deploy the centre halves, Konate and Van Dyke, on them. The out ball to the wide men was thus negated and much of our threat was curtailed. Other managers will have noted this and may well look to employ it. Of course, they don’t have 2 such high-quality centre halves nor the Anfield crowd so good luck with that. 

We now have to pick ourselves up and go again. The next two games are fortunately against more humble opposition, and we have a week in between to recover. City have an incredibly tough double header against Bayern this week and next with, unfortunately, only doomed Leicester in between, for which they could probably field a mix of their second XI — you know World Cup winner, Alvarez, Bernardo Silva, those types — and their u21s and still win. We have to focus on ourselves and go and do what we can. 

Whatever the outcome to this season, it has been an incredible journey and the manager, players, staff and owners deserve our fulsome praise. With Champions League next season almost guaranteed, let us hope that the team of Garlick, Edu and Arteta can make some more magic happen and get in some more extraordinary talent in the mould of Jesus, Ødegaard, Ramsdale and White. Combined with the maturation of our young stars and possibly the budding of a couple more, we could be witnessing the start of a special period.

Posted in Match Report | 78 Drinks »

Summon the Spirit of ‘89

Apr 8th, 2023 by

It’s up for grabs, now…….Thomas! From unclemikesmusings.blogspot.com

So, we come, in pretty fair fettle after 7 wins on the trot, to the first of the three most difficult and, possibly, season defining away games that we must surmount to win the Premiership for the first time in 19 years. Liverpool away. This has never been an easy trip for the Arsenal. Not even in ’89 which must rank as our greatest and most significant victory at Anfield where, as Lee Dixon has since observed, no-one expected us to win, let alone by the requisite 2 goal margin in their own lair, against the club that had swept almost all before it since the mid-70’s. But we did. While, unlike ’89, much work will remain to be done after this game and neither victory nor defeat will conclusively determine the destination of the title, a win on Sunday would maintain our momentum, enhance our belief (certainly mine) and be one more step towards that league title. Anfield is a big test for our young team.

Be under no illusion, the Red Scousers harbour a visceral hatred for the Arsenal and will be well up for this game. They have never forgiven the Arsenal for ‘stealing’ the First Division title at Anfield in 1989, effectively marking the beginning of the end of Liverpool’s dominance of English football. Although they did win one more First Division title in 1990, we took it back in ’91. Then our emergence in the mid 90’s as the only consistent challenger to Manure until the arrival of financially doped Chelski and Citeh in the mid noughties added to their angst as they declined. The outrage with which Liverpool and their fans responded to the Arsenal’s bid for Suarez was driven by their belief that they are our betters, notwithstanding 30 years in the top tier wilderness. Liverpool and their fans would like nothing better (apart from finishing in the top 4!) than to stop another team built the right way beating the-expensively-assembled-€itzens-of-(allegedly)-Off-Balance-Sheet-FC (© Lonestar Gooner) to the top spot. Moreover, a Liverpool win tomorrow would revive their faint hopes of a Champions League place and the financial boost needed to rebuild their ageing squad.  In contrast, a win for the Arsenal would doubtless bring flashbacks of 1989 and enhance fears that Klopp’s era and the recent renaissance of Liverpool FC as a force are coming to an end. They really don’t need any further motivation.

That 1989 victory at Anfield was extra special because it was rather an ‘exception to the rule’. Liverpool is one of the few clubs against whom we have lost more games than we have won. Since our first meeting on 28 October 1893 (a 0-5 defeat), we have won 82, drawn 62 and lost 94 games against Liverpool. In our 31 Premier League visits to Anfield we have won 7, drawn 8 and lost 16. Even in our late-nineties to mid-noughties pomp, a visit to Anfield was, more often than not, unrewarding. We have to go back 11 years for our last league victory there – an auspicious year as we won twice in a row, 2-1 in March 2012 and 2-0 in September 2012 in the next season. Since then we have recorded only two Premier League draws at Anfield in 2014 and 2016, plus League Cup draws in 2019, 2020 and 2022. In total we have made 9 league visits to Anfield since we last won there but, as Gordon Strachan once said, “The longer a record lasts, the closer it comes to its end!” When we went to Anfield in May 1989 needing a 2-goal victory to win the First Division, our previous victory had been in 1974 which was followed by 13 winless league visits. Summoning the spirit of ’89 could well be useful tomorrow.

Liverpool’s season has been poor by their recent Klopp-inspired standards and they currently sit in 8th place with 43 points, 29 points behind the league leaders (who dat?) and 10 points adrift of 4th place with three other clubs between them and that prized spot (did a wise man once say that there should be a ‘fourth place trophy’?). This season they have looked far more porous defensively and their rampaging fullbacks have regularly left their flanks exposed, while VVD has often looked short of the pace with which he once neutralised attackers. Last Saturday’s MotD produced an interesting statistic to support those observations: this season, after 27 games, Liverpool had conceded the second most ‘big chances’ per game, in the Premier League, at 3.0, behind only Fulham at 3.1 and ahead of Leeds at 2.9. That stat will look no better after their midweek performance against the Chavs. Their once imperious midfield has looked short of pace, power and energy and Citeh and Chavski both played through and round them with ease. Nor, apart from two games, have they been scoring goals with the unrestrained abandon of recent seasons. Salah looked off the boil early in the season and there is no doubt that Mane was missed. However, Salah’s form has since improved while Gakpo and Nunez appear to have found their feet recently.

Despite Liverpool’s poor season to date, the league table demonstrates a clear pattern: Liverpool have been poor on the road: 

P15 W3 D7 L5 F18 A24 Pts 16,

but, their home form remains very impressive: 

P13 W9 D3 L1 F34 A9 Pts30.

At home, they have drawn 1-1 with Palace, 3-3 with Brighton (take a bow, hat-trick hero, L. Trossard) and 0-0 with Chavski, lost only once, 1-2 to Dirty Leeds but have dished out 9-0 and 7-0 thrashings to Bournemouth and Manure respectively and beat both Citeh and the Magpies by the odd goal. At Anfield, Liverpool are no soft touch. There are no grounds for complacency based on the teams’ respective league positions.

I watched Liverpool’s televised midweek visit to the Bus-stop to see whether their flaccid display in the second half at the Emptihad last Saturday was repeated. Klopp made six changes from the Citeh game.  He rested Arnold, Robertson, Salah, Gakpo, Elliot while VVD wasn’t in the squad due to ‘illness’ – an exacerbation of his ‘asthma’, perhaps? Carvalho returned to the bench after an absence. Liverpool’s midfield of Henderson, Fabinho and Jones were regularly overrun by the Chav threesome of Kante, Fernandez and Kovacic and the Chav wingbacks were prominent in attack. Up front, Nunez played on the left, Firminho played a ‘false nine’ and Jota started on the right but Liverpool created little threat and Kapa was rarely troubled. On the other hand, the Chavs were able to cut through Liverpool’s midfield and defence with rapid movement of man and ball and had 4 clear-cut chances to score. Only the absence of a clinical finisher in blue allowed Liverpool to leave with a point. Salah and Robertson came on for the last 25 minutes and Milner and Gakpo with 10 minutes left. Notably, in the second half the Liverpool players rather ‘put themselves about’ earning 4 yellow cards – it should have been more. Fabinho was fortunate that his card came in the 74th minute after two previous offences worthy of a first yellow card (ITWGX?). VVD, Thiago and Diaz are apparently available again for selection on Sunday. I expect Klopp to select his strongest eleven, perhaps adding Thiago to the midfield, certainly bringing back VVD, Arnold, Robertson, Salah and Gakpo. They will try to blow us out of the water with Kop-encouraged assaults early in each half and, if the bus stop display is anything to go on, will attempt to neutralise our creative players with barely legal physical challenges. Expect Milner to appear at some point to kick those who have not been immobilised.

The news on Saliba is disappointing and Holding will be required to repeat the fine performances he has contributed since being called upon to replace the Frenchman. Capitola Rob (© scruzgooner) doesn’t have Saliba’s pace, silky movement and calming influence but he’s an able back-up and gives 100%. He will need to remain calm in the face of Nunez’s predictable playacting. Our only selection question is up front. Does Mikel play the first-choice threesome or does he pull off a surprise by playing Trossard in one of the front three positions? Saka was rested for an hour against Leeds due to illness and will surely return. Martinelli was on fire against Fulham and Leeds and is frankly undroppable. I think Jesús will also get the call. It is Easter Sunday, after all. So, I expect the following starting eleven and Leo, through no fault of his own (he too was superb against Leeds), to start from the bench:

Ramsdale;

White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;

Ødegaard, Partey, Xhaka;

Saka, Jesús, Martinelli.

If the team can play with the verve and skill they showed in the second half against Leeds and avoid the ‘rabbit in headlights’ performances we have seen too often at Anfield, then they can win this game. Have no doubt, it will be hard. Liverpool will do everything they can to beat us and we must not only have every man at the top of his game, we must take the chances we should surely create – think Martinelli vs Arnold! Liverpool will double or even triple team our wide men and this should create spaces for Ødegaard, Xhaka and Jesús to exploit. I would have liked the option of Tomiyasu to stop Salah’s rampaging runs and cutting inside to shoot so Gabriel and Xhaka are going to have to be alive to Salah’s exploitation of the space that the peripatetic Zinchenko leaves on our left flank. Klopp is sure to target that space and KT3 may well be added to the mix as the game winds down.

I expect this game to be very tight but I don’t expect it to be scoreless. As is now usual, my Holic Pound is going to support Ukraine, but for those still helping Bookmakers to buy bigger mansions, Betfair surprisingly have Arsenal favourites to win at 7/5, the draw at a rather long 13/5 and Liverpool to win at 9/5. You can get 9/1 on 2-1 for the Arsenal and 25/1 on 3-2 at Bet 365. Good luck!

The result of this game will not in itself determine the destination of the title but it will certainly have some influence. Much like our visit in ’89, this is a big test for a young Arsenal team and an opportunity for them to show what they are made of. We know that this group can entertain and we love them for that. We know they have huge desire and have shown resilience and determination when called for and we respect them for that. Now, they have to show that they possess the steel required to survive the red-hot cauldron of Anfield and come away with a victory like the men of ’89. If they can do that, I believe that this Arsenal team has a great chance of lifting the Premier League trophy at the end of May.

COYG

Enjoy the game, Holics (if you can!) and Happy Easter!

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