Liverpool Fall To Another Defeat – What We Learned
By: Shane Brennan.
Liverpool travelled to London to face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon, as The Reds were looking to kickstart their league campaign and propel themselves up the league table, but what did we learn from the encounter?
The visitors got off to the worst possible start as Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard combined to deadly effect to set up Gabriel Martinelli who finished brilliantly past the on-rushing Alisson Becker to give The Gunners the perfect start.
Jurgen Klopp’s side responded quite well, however, and they could well have had a penalty when Diogo Jota struck the ball against Gabriel, but referee Michael Oliver and his VAR team strangely saw nothing doing, as The Reds were denied what looked to be a clear spot-kick.
Liverpool nearly did equalise through a superb move down the right-hand side as Darwin Nunez squared the ball for Luis Diaz, William Saliba was very alert and with his attempt to clear Aaron Ramsdale was called into action as he produced a fine save to preserve Arsenals lead.
Klopp’s charges did equalise thanks to an excellent cross from Diaz that put the ball on a plate for Nunez as he stuck the ball away to put Liverpool back on terms.
But there was more bad news for Liverpool just before the break when Arsenal sped forward from a Liverpool free kick as Martinelli teased a fragile Liverpool defence on the edge of the box he managed to set the ball up for Saka who had the simple task of tapping the ball home and in turn restore Arsenals lead.
At the start of the second half, Arsenal came out of the blocks flying, as Martinelli was causing trouble again when he set up Odegaard who had a clear sight of goal, Luckily he could only fire his shot straight at Alisson.
Liverpool did manage to grab another equaliser through good play yet again from Diogo Jota as he set up Roberto Firmino for a clean run through n goal to finish past Aaron Ramsdale into the bottom right-hand corner, as potentially Liverpool had a platform to kick on from.
Sadly, it just wasn’t to be as Arsenal upped it a gear and Liverpool just simply were not able to cope, and The Gunners were nearly in front again, but for an excellent interception from the returning Ibrahima Konate, Liverpool would have found themselves behind once again.
The reprieve wasn’t to last for long as pinball broke out in the Liverpool penalty area as several players desperately tried to keep the ball out of the back of the net, in doing so Thiago Alcantara stuck out a foot and caught Gabriel Jesus and a penalty was awarded.
Saka stuck the ball in the bottom corner with pace, and in doing so sealed Liverpool’s fate on the day and sent Arsenal back to the top of The Premier League and left The Reds with an almighty amount of work to do to get their season back on track, ahead of their trip to Glasgow and the upcoming visit of champions Manchester City to Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Stand out performances
Darwin Nunez
He was very good his movement and shooting are improving and he also got a great goal, as long as Liverpool allows him time and he keeps his cool then we will have a fine player and a goal-poacher.
Conclusion
This is clearly a very worrying time for Liverpool they just haven’t got their season going, it very much looks like it is going to be one of those seasons that we will have to try and just dig out results to have ourselves in contention for the top four at the end of the season.
