{"id":7740,"date":"2023-04-10T10:29:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T09:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7740"},"modified":"2023-04-15T14:12:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T13:12:27","slug":"nobody-said-it-would-be-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=7740","title":{"rendered":"Nobody Said It Would Be Easy\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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\u2019s away form which has dragged them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Liverpool 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool 1 Arsenal 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the half-time whistle, there was some handbags as the players left the field. Robertson grabbed the linesman\u2019s 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 \u201cforgetting\u201d to review an offside call. It is not often I agree with Roy Keane but his summation of Robertson as \u201ca big baby\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool started the second halfas they had finished the first: aggressive and piling on the pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool then really began to press and command the game. At the same time, I think Arteta\u2019s post-match description of it as \u201cchaotic\u201d was pretty much spot on. They didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool 2 Arsenal 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the lateness of the goal, the game still wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score Liverpool 2 Arsenal 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, now we see the true impact of the Premier League\u2019s continued use of PGMOL to supervise matches. We should have another 2 points. But due to \u2013 well, you tell me: Incompetence? Nipping outside for a crafty smoke during the game and missing the action? \u201cOther\u201d? \u2013 we were deprived of the two points against Brentford which by rights would have given us the comfortable cushion our performance to date deserves. \u201cFormed in 2001 to improve refereeing standards\u2026\u201d is the first line from the website. Not the PGMOL website. There isn\u2019t one. This is from a PGMOL page on the Premier League website. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019t have 2 such high-quality centre halves nor the Anfield crowd so good luck with that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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, \u00d8degaard, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7740"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7759,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740\/revisions\/7759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}