Arsenal were BETTER than Liverpool ( ANALYSIS & REACTION)

Arsenal 2, Liverpool 2, 3 big incidences in one game, 4 goals and a lot to discuss and take in people. So let's jump straight into it. Smash the like button, subscribe and all that good stuff. See you on the other side. Peace. There was about 7 to 8 passes from us retaining the ball from Liverpool to us knocking it about to obviously Benjamin White putting it over the top for Bukayo Saka and his brilliance from Bukayo. He's playing with a swagger that he always has but now he's got that nastiness. Big up Robertson who typically has a good game against Saka but he was absolutely cooked and when you look at it from a tactical point of view, Saka's actually involved in the initial 7-8 passes. He's made the pass, he's gone forward. Now Liverpool, you could see they set up in a 4-2-4. They were kind of happy to let David Raya, Gabriel, Benjamin White and actually Declaris all have the ball and say come and break us down. Saka, as I said, has been involved. You would have seen on the left-hand side, Timber and Martinelli holding a lot of width simultaneously. Like we've seen a lot, Kai Havertz dropping over to the right-hand side. Trosser maintaining Liverpool's defence to keep them honest while having an attacker there and I think that kind of helped them. Now Liverpool's back four was disjointed. Robertson's dropped back. Neither of the centre-halves are kind of leading the line in that moment. It's a fantastic ball from Benjamin White. Saka's still got a lot to do and he's made it look easy. He's cooked Robertson, he's smashed it into the goal and it's another big game goal from Bakaya. What a player he is. Two weeks in a row we've conceded via a corner. Now initially I think, I'm not going to show it on screen, but I think we lost the ball quite cheaply. Liverpool, long story short, recycled possession. Virgil van Dijk's a quality defender. When you look at his passing range, it is one of the best in the world and he's played a lovely ball over the top for Luis Diaz. I do believe however, he has conceded a corner. Now Trent Alexander-Arnold, I think for the majority of the game he flattered to see, but when Liverpool needed him for two moments that contributed to the goals, he was there. We know for all the talking points about Trent Alexander-Arnold, he's one of the best full-backs at creating, one of the best creative players really and truly in today's day and age. Now he's put a ball into the box and yeah, there's a touch of fortune. It's a very good ball from him. Diaz has actually got the flick on. Partey is marking van Dijk. Apologies, van Dijk simply got in front of Partey, put the ball in the back of the net and nine minutes after we scored the opener with Bukayo Saka, it was then level. Whenever we did go forward and get into Liverpool's final third, especially in the first half, we looked very threatening and that's something I want to see on a more consistent basis. We took the lead via Mikel Moreno, who scored his first goal for Arsenal. What a time to get it. Now you obviously know Thomas Partey was fouled. We work a lot on dead ball scenarios and dead ball situations. We had a moment just before Moreno scored where it was somewhat identical. Obviously we didn't score. On this time we did. It's a devilish ball from Declan Rice who looked fantastic back in his old role of the Six. Mikel Moreno's got there, he's got his debut goal for Arsenal or his first goal for Arsenal, better yet, and we're backing it with a 2-1 lead. Big games like Arsenal versus Liverpool can be summed up by moments, long story short. It was a bit weird because I feel just like in the Shakhtar game, we probably sat a bit back too much in our half people. But you could argue, which some people have said is in the second half in particular, the one time we kind of was a bit risk, wasn't risk averse and we were a bit risky and we tried to open up. That's actually what killed us in the 81st minute. It's a lovely ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold and we're going to get into that shortly. But we were caught on the transition. We had a bit of encouragement. Young Lewis Skelly, who's done very well in all the cameos he's made, has found Martinelli. Martinelli's got his head down, like always, lost the ball cheaply. Canate's won the ball back, who had a great game. From they've won the ball back, Trent Alexander-Arnold has found the run of Darwin Nunes and actually Mohamed Salah. By then we're disjointed. We've got a young, inexperienced left-back. We've got Kiviel who lacks leadership qualities. Benjamin White was caught at sixes and sevens and that's ultimately what led to our demise. It's a fantastic recovery from Canate, an exquisite pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold, a great run and composure from Darwin Nunes and Mohamed Salah does, especially against Arsenal, week in, week out, what Mohamed Salah does and that's put the ball in the back of the net. It's a great run from out to in by him. As well as that, it's a great run from Darwin Nunes and yeah, eight minutes from time, nine minutes from time, we dropped two points. I do think there were some individuals that stood tall. The first, obviously, being the star boy, Bakayo Saka. At this point, it's boring speaking about him in a good way. Anybody that doesn't rate this guy and doesn't think he's one of the best in his position in the world just has agendas. We keep hearing nonsense. He doesn't move me. He's not entertaining on the eye. He doesn't pass the eye test. He needs to do it here, there, everywhere. Bearing in mind it's a team game. He's one of the youngest to get 50 goals. He always does it against the top six. Bearing in mind, yes, Mikel Arteta might have been playing a bit of a game with Bakayo Saka's fitness going into this, but clearly he's not fully fit. He's clearly not. He stood up tall in a game where we need our star boy. We all know with Martin Odegaard and Saka not there, we lose a lot of creativity and we also lose what I believe in big games, going back to it, moments. Moving on from one Arsenal and England player to the other, big up Benjamin Wyatt for playing centre-half and playing well, but I actually want to discuss Declan Rice. There's been a lot of rhetoric around Declan Rice into this season. I do think fans are getting a bit frustrated with him. I think he stood tall against Liverpool. I think he had a great game, obviously got an assist. I think he passed forward a lot more. I think he done what Declan Rice does and that's the industrious nature in midfield, winning the ball, doing all of that kind of stuff. And is it any surprise he went back into the sixth position and put in a level of performance like that? I'm not too sure, but big up Rice. Keeping up the theme with midfield, Mikel Moreno, I feel in his early Arsenal days, there's been a lot of hyper opinions around him. Bearing in mind he didn't have a pre-season, he got injured and he's been playing catch-up, and the only time you could say he was poor was the whole collective performance against Bournemouth. I know he played right back, but he is a central midfielder. Thomas Partey, he started the last nine games for us. He's been great where Arsenal have been concerned in the early part of this season. I have to ask you the question, while it's only nine games into this season, he is on the wrong side of 30, he is on big money. Would you give him a new contract? Now, when you look at certain comments post-game from both Mikel Arteta and indirectly Bakaio Saka, I would describe this Liverpool game as a bittersweet moment for the players, because I do feel Mikel Arteta is right. Potentially could have showed more courage in the second half. I do think the first half was a lot better than I thought, and my nerves calmed down. I do think we could have avoided those two goals. I cut the team a bit more slack for the second goal because we did gamble a bit and you could argue it's a fantastic pass from Trent, great movement and a finish from Salah and take nothing away from Darwin Nunes. But you do wonder, could we have pressed the issue a bit more and scored some more? Could we have done better defensively? We probably would have taken a point going into the game. I feel considering the injuries and the status and the overall health of our team and the many question marks, personally I think we did a lot better than I would have thought for us fans. I do think the players can leave with some momentum and some sort of positives, but I do think it's a bittersweet moment. I do think we could have done better in the final third. I do think it would have been a lovely way to react from the Bournemouth game, really, because no matter how we look at it, we lost to Bournemouth, we drew against Brighton, we drew against Liverpool and obviously Manchester City. I'm not here to get into the isms and schisms of how that game panned out, but you look at the points available in those games and the points dropped, we've got a deficit to chase. Unfortunately, the real winners from this weekend are Manchester City. They've seen both their title rivals drop points. They might not be playing amazing by their own standards, but they keep ticking over. Obviously, the more points you need to catch City, the more you're making it difficult for you, really and truly, because we know City are going to kick into gear. For us, we need to mount a run of form and, quite frankly, three points. But yeah, man, I think Mikel Arteta with his post-game comments is bang on the money and also indirectly for Kyle. Now, I don't know about you lot people, but in conclusion for the Arsenal-Liverpool game, when it's all said and done, if you offered me a point, especially around the talking points and the injuries and all of those kind of things where Arsenal are concerned, prior to the game, I would have taken a point. I must admit, though, having been in the lead against both Manchester City and Liverpool to attempt alleged challenges like us for the title, it would have been lovely to see the result through to the end. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. So, it's a mixing motion. Is it a point game? Is it two points drop? Liverpool's form, in direct contrast to us, is out of this world. Arsenal, rightly so, like the players, have been getting a lot of flawed it. That being said as well, my only real big criticism of the second half is because it's the same week where I saw it against Shakhtar in the second half and I saw it against Liverpool, in that I think we sit back a bit too much, invite pressure. When you're doing that and you're crippled by injuries, I kind of give a bit of grace for the Liverpool second half because although I would love to have seen us have a bit more courage, as Mikel Arteta himself suggested, I kind of understand that you've got a makeshift back four. We ran into the ground. As much as I want us to create chances, because it did feel like whenever we got into the final third and had some half chances and technically scored and it was disallowed, it felt like we were asking problems of Liverpool. So maybe we could have a bit more courage or intention or invention in that regard. But saying that, if we not go gun-hole, but if we were naive and you make it an open game and you're susceptible to counter-attack against the transition killers of Liverpool, you shoot yourselves in the foot. So that's my only major criticism. I felt we stood tall. I think Kivio did a lot better watching the game again than I gave him credit for. I think Lewis Skelly did what he could. I think Declan Rice in the sixth was amazing. Thomas Partey started all nine Premier League games. We hope that continues. Yes, he got cooked one, two times against Diaz, but he can leave that pitch with credibility. Pacquiao Saka is Pacquiao Saka. We're not creating in the second half, so he was quiet. But that man just come back from an injury, cooked Robertson and scored a fantastic goal. We subjected Liverpool to go into hoofball really and truly. You could see the shameless stuff. We got Trent from Trent doing all of that at the Emirates, people considering everything. I must admit, I'm sure Liverpool fans, and I'm not a fan of Jamie Carragher's comments, really. He spins things more than a Beyblade. I don't think there's consistencies when he talks about Liverpool because Liverpool have talked about being this title challenger and things like that. Mohamed Salah is Salah. Him scoring against Arsenal is inevitable. He's got a fantastic record, yeah, but we kept him relatively quiet. Trent obviously made the difference, but we didn't really get threatened by him. When you break down, the biggest plaudits they get is that midfield, and that midfield, I won't quite say toothless, but it flattered to see that it wasn't as good based on that 90 minutes as it's been talked of going into the game. So, you know what? Arteta did say we'd be flying. I won't quite say we're flying, but it is a good performance. Unfortunately, though, it is a second game we've conceded from a set piece, and it's in our second Premier League week we have not scored. I think there's some negatives. I think there's some positives. All we can do is try and do battle at Anfield and keep it moving. Now, we know we've got Preston, Inter, Newcastle, Chelsea. There's some big games. So, that's my ending thoughts. Let me know your thoughts. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. Big up for you lot, people. I want to know your thoughts. As much as I like doing videos, it's you lot who make the platform. So, yeah, get in the comments, subscribe, turn on your notification bells, check out the other videos. One love.