Review: Arsenal vs Liverpool

In one mind this was the opening match we dreaded but yet expected. Arsenal lost again therir opening fixture for the second consecutive year. But one thing unique about this opening loss is the many reasons people have attached to it. For many fans is the lack of quality signings, for Arsene it is the absence of senior players, the unjury crisis, physicality of the team etc, for others the match tactics.

Well for me all these reasons count but as a guy who always makes ue with what he has got, I will always point my finger to the starting line-up. Sundays match selection was the most uncreative, most timid side that Arsene has chosen to start a game in his time in arsenal that I have witnessed. There was no one creative midfielder, no creative winger  and a young and inexperince central defence. Yet if u hadn't known whom we were playing you would have thought that it was a carling or Fa cup game you were witnessing its team sheet. Even so you would only imagine such team against an opponent like Aston villa or Burnley. So here is a simple analysis of what went wrong;

Defence

Arsene had failed to bring a defender to the emirates, so we were left with our favourite full back and the most inexperienced center back of which one of them was not even a natural center back. Yet every one expected them to fail and they did not fall short of their expectations. They conceded four goals in less than 15 minutes. Yet for me I think they deserve the highest credit for the day if any. They had a very good first half and were only unlucky to concede an unstoppable freekick of which their inexperience had given away. But aside that they did okay and my confidence was growing in them especially given the support that was given to them by the midfield. However maybe that special goal shattered their confidence and in the second half they couldn't deal with any pressure at all.

However if you watch very carefully this happened because the midfield in front of them were unable to either retain  possession or move the ball foward as liverpool players ganered more energy. The midfield collapsed and the defence faced liverpool four similar attackers directly and were completely lost with the movement and skill of these attackers. Thus  the confusion and four goals. One thing I will like to mention here is that please Chambers is not a defender in any way. I watched how helpless he was against swansea's monterro at right back two years ago now he was so helpless against mane. He is a walcott in our defence and plus I think he would do better as a midfielder or an attacker considering his technique.

Midfield

The midfield was where wenger got it wrong. How is it that Aaron started ahead of Cazorla, Aaron just returned from Europe so  should have been on the bench. Where the heck was Joel Campbell? Why was Iwobi starting the game ahead of the best preseason player Chamberlain? Well Arsene knows best. But we are die- hard arsenal fans and we know too. We know our players and know what they are capable of. After watching walcott and the likes for more than five years there is no how wenger will tell me to watch what they do in training and I will accept them. There are three kind of nidfielders, the ones who are always attracted to the ball because he wants to do something with it, the one who always ran away from the ball only to meet it when he wants to take a strike or both. Yesterday all Arsene fielded player who wouldnt know what to do with the ball. The only midfield that had a real job was coquelin the rest well wished that Ozil or Cazorla had started the game. Walcott was exhausted after he missed a penalty and scored the first goal. Maybe he felt he had done his part and will be exonerated from a bad outcome. Elneny I have watched his game. He is a hard working player. But he lacks creativity, the initiative and he plays too safe for my liking at such a young age. He wont have a carrer to remember if he continues like that.  Iwobi, why him ahead of Chamberlain or Campbell, he is not better than either. Am not saying if there was a chamberlain or a cazorla we would have won. I am saying it would have given us a better chance. And only then can I blame the players for loosing and not Arsene.  Am still amazed with the starting line up. Can u imagine a line up with no long free kick taker, corner taker and penalty taker? How much worse can it get?

Attack

It was Sanchez fault that he had very little action. It was the fault of his positin and the one who told him to play there. Throughout the 90 minutes I was hoping he would exchange position with walcott but he did not seem motivated to do so. He would have been more effective at either side of the wing.

So that is it. Our first loss of the season. Here I me hoping that our next is not so close. Only hope I have is that each of the first game of the season I have watched us loose we never had to play UCL qualification the following season.

Arsene should make some popular and good signing to lift our spirits including the players. 100 million  for Aubameyang will do it. Cheers gunners!