Arsenal vs. Liverpool

We are indeed the only team not to have conceded so far. Who would've thought? Also, Liverpool are in the relegation zone.

I think Liverpool were actually pretty good. Stirling hit the post. The ref could have fallen for Suarez's antics. Skrtel had a great header chance from a corner. I think they will be in the top 6.

Jonathan Prendergast wrote:I think Liverpool were actually pretty good. Stirling hit the post. The ref could have fallen for Suarez's antics. Skrtel had a great header chance from a corner. I think they will be in the top 6.

Then again, when you realize they only have 2 senior forwards, Suarez and Borini(who looks a bit shit), until atleast January then thats a bit hard to believe. Think Everton might finish above them again. They do have a decent looking midfield and a solid defence though.

I think they will struggle big time to hit the top 6....this could be a season where a big team gets a little too close to the bottom lot....spurs scraped out of it a few seasons ago and only just...with as said Liverpool only having...well might as well say one striker...its a recipe for disaster...what the hell they have seen in borin is beyond me...and we say chamakh is shit...
He looks marvelous compared to borin...

Borin by name borin by nature.......first manager of the season to be sacked...
Saying that I do fell sorry for him...took over with fuck all money available..

Liverpool played well but we defended well and took our chances, Liverpool have been a mid table club for a few years now what ever their fans might say about their 'history' Rodgers has a massive job on his hands and won't change things in 3 games. He definitely made a school boy error letting Carroll go with no replacement though.

Hi guys,

I was impressed yesterday with the sharpness of our passing, the triangles we created and some of the movement as well.

I thought Mannone dealt with most of what he had to well.

I've got to say how impressed I am again with Jenkinson, not the finished article but has come so far and I no longer worry with his name on the teamsheet, was a boy last year, looks more like a man this year in everything he does.

Vermaelen and Gibbs were both very good. Mertesacker made some terrible passes and that lunge from behind in the box was very dangerous, thought he was our weakest link at the back although still cant complain with a clean sheet.

Our midfield was superb, all three of them worked so hard and were so good on the ball rarely if ever giving it away. Id love Diaby to stay fit and do wonder if we can perform like that regularly, reminded me more of Viera yesterday than ever before with his striding through midfield. I really liked the first two subs Wenger used as well, Ramsey and Santos worked hard when they came on and did what was needed, both should be working their socks off to get in the team...

Ox put in a shift I thought, more so than Walcott or Gervinho would have done but it just didnt come off for him with the ball at his feet, still happy.

Podolski did the same and is clinical when needed, very impressive performace.

Giroud had some chances, its better than not having chances you would say but will have to start taking them eventually, if Vermaelen hadnt gotten a kick I was hoping to see Walcott for Giroud for the last 5-10 minutes and see how that worked out.

I know the lack of a signing has fucked some people off but this is a good unit we have and if we keep people fit we can suprise alot of people this season.

I thought Mertesacker did pretty well. He started a bit shaky and on the ball, both him and Jenkinson are targeted by the opposition and they get pressed hard, and I'd rather they punted into the channels than try dangerous passes in our back third.

But after that I thought his reading of the game and anticipation in putting out any potential fires was very good. He did get a bit lucky with the challenge on Sterling, thought it was a stone wall penalty live, but it was a fantastic tackle. I think he's now made the CB position his own until he fucks up or gets injured. Which is terribly unlucky for Koscielny, but can't argue with clean sheets.

Mannone - not convincing at all under high balls. Put us under needless pressure about 3 times when he didn't come out to claim a high ball. Did other things ok, though. But if Szczesny is still hurt and he starts after the break he needs to learn how to be more dominant.

Jenkinson - started shaky and thought Sterling would terrorise him but he grew and grew as the game went on. Is becoming more assured of himself, confident and is benefiting with the extra defensive work we are doing on the training ground (quite a few seasons overdue, btw).

Vermaelen - a good performance, love the way he wanted to kill Suarez whenever ratboy cheated. Captaincy suits his character, now hopefully he irons out some of those mishaps he's capable of.

Gibbs - has started the season very brightly. Offers something going forward, still think he lacks full positional awareness defensively and can get caught out (like he did with Pennant last week) but with hopefully a run of games that will come.

Arteta - very good performance. So intelligent and hard working, getting blocks and tackles in and always retains possession.

Diaby - his best performance in maybe a couple of years, he is a joy to watch when he performs like that. He looks a complete player. But as we know, it's what he follows it up with, whether he can stay fit and whether that same performance can be repeated against more defensive sides.

Cazorla - this guy is a magician. I can watch him all day. He stays fit all season; we are fine. But if he gets hurt, or tired post-Xmas, there is no one else who offers what he does.

The Ox - as has been mentioned, hard working and put in a shift. Didn't come off offensively but as Mike said I'd much rather see that type of performance away from home than the equivalent from Walcott or Gervinho.

Podolski - hard working, disciplined but in and around the box was dangerous. A goal and an assist, can't ask for much more. The goal showed he wanted it more than the useless Johnson and it was a decent finish. Hopefully that starts him off. Could see he was blowing about 5 minutes before being subbed.

Giroud - really needs a goal. It feels like the days of Bergkamp going 7 games without scoring or Henry scoring in his 9th without it causing a nuclear meltdown amongst Arsenal fans/media are gone. Yes, a lot was said back then too but nowadays with social media and 24 hour news and more humans acting like morons than ever before it is a lot more unforgiving. His two misses were quite poor. The shot in the 1st half from Diaby's pass and the header from the corner in the 2nd. He has to do better and I don't think his hold up play was great. But I think the goals will come because he does have some intelligent movement off the ball and is always working hard. He will not score 25 goals a season in this league but hopefully it's 15+. Hopefully. He just needs to get the ball rolling, preferably the next game.

Southampton at home next, on paper couldn't be better, we should at least create Giroud some chances in that game.

Mario Leontiou wrote:Jenkinson - started shaky and thought Sterling would terrorise him but he grew and grew as the game went on. Is becoming more assured of himself, confident and is benefiting with the extra defensive work we are doing on the training ground (quite a few seasons overdue, btw).

After the shaky start I was a tad worried but the fact he got straight over the initial couple mistakes and grew into the game is a huge plus. It shows he was not phased and shrugged off the errors to improve. He started matching whoever he was up against, using his strength to get them off the ball and put in some very good slide tackles and blocks. I've liked the look of him since he came (he was very raw but was a tall and physical full back, runs and runs, has a good cross etc) and if he keeps progressing then he can be very useful filling in at right/left this season.

Per Mertesacker says that self-belief was a key factor in Arsenal’s morale-boosting win at Liverpool on Sunday.

Goals from new signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla secured an impressive 2-0 victory for Arsène Wenger’s men to send them into the international break on a high note.

The Gunners will face Southampton, Manchester City and Chelsea when the Premier League resumes, and Mertesacker hopes they can pick up from where they left off.

“We believed in ourselves [against Liverpool] - that was the most important thing and we played fantastic,” he told Arsenal Player.

“We had to believe a lot, because our squad has had many changes and some important players have moved. We didn't know where we stood, but we are very happy now.

“You could see it in the dressing room directly after the match. We are very proud to play for Arsenal. We had a great opportunity here to show everybody what Arsenal is.

“We now have to focus on our strengths and that is vital for the next few weeks, to stay near the top of the league.

“A lot of challenges are coming after the international break but we are looking forward to them because we are full of confidence. We showed that against Liverpool.”

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/mertesacker-confidence-is-flowing-now?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arsenal-news+%28News+Feed%29

I know its been said before but I like that everyone in the squad right now looks as if they actually want to play for Arsenal and look happy here. Journos and media all basically admit even though the contract negotiations haven't been completed yet that Theo very much wants to stay as he loves it here. Hopefully this good atmosphere in the squad will continue to show on the pitch.

Not sure if its been said, but

Giroud's run leading up to Podolski's goal was very important.

Jonathan Prendergast wrote:Not sure if its been said, but

Giroud's run leading up to Podolski's goal was very important.

It's a very clever run, if he hadn't made the run he wouldn't have lead the defenders away from Cazorla. It's typical of a CF, like VP... Keeps the defence backing off. Theo has made a couple of those in his career like against Utd a couple of years back when Nasri slammed home that screamer.

Jonathan Prendergast wrote:Not sure if its been said, but

Giroud's run leading up to Podolski's goal was very important.

What he does very well, and this was highlighted by some pundit at half time, is he makes runs where the defender can not watch the ball and the player which either creates space for the ball carrier or space for giroud to pass to. Even his miss against Sunderland and the miss against Pool, he ran behind the CB and cut back inside and all of a sudden he is in a yard of space through on goal. His movement is excellent despite my knee jerk reaction at the time that he is Chamakh v2. Once he gets his first, he will be banging them in from everywhere

Chris Chan wrote:

Jonathan Prendergast wrote:Not sure if its been said, but

Giroud's run leading up to Podolski's goal was very important.

What he does very well, and this was highlighted by some pundit at half time, is he makes runs where the defender can not watch the ball and the player which either creates space for the ball carrier or space for giroud to pass to. Even his miss against Sunderland and the miss against Pool, he ran behind the CB and cut back inside and all of a sudden he is in a yard of space through on goal. His movement is excellent despite my knee jerk reaction at the time that he is Chamakh v2. Once he gets his first, he will be banging them in from everywhere

pretty much. his first goal is all that is needed. And he's quite hard to defend against as he makes runs in between the CB and the LB/RB most of the times, hence effectively increasing our chances to keep possession even if he can't collect the pass cleanly everytime. I think he'll score and help create plenty of goals for us in years to come.

One slight thing overlooked in the game.....

Our new sought after and found abaility to defend as a unit and turn it to a very direct attack.

Well sure in the past our tippy tappy football as it been called has helped us play our way out of trouble....a team would attack us and it used to be a case of one grabbing hold of the ball and playing a thousand and one passes that sometimes would create more problems in itself just to try and I say 'try' and force our way back up field...short direct passing has its bonus but also has its downside..the down being the whole of the team was pushing on rather than leaving a small defensive unit behind...this has been the complete opposite so far this season..

our passing while at times has been short and sweet we seam to be seeing more direct runs and surging runs for that matter..almost looking at it as the boys have a new found confidence of being allowed to go ahead as a single rather than everybody playing the part to gain 40 yards rather than the 1 doing the 40 yards himself..

But with the bonus of anything being lost its a whole unit tracking back and regaining the ball once more and as we have seen very quickly and very organized...this is something we have lacked in past seasons with robin,arsha and chamakh being very guilty of some needed defensive duties...

The bould affect while seemingly is showing good dividends at the back it seams (all be it new players finding their feet in the team and the team finding them) turning our attack into something not seen in a while I belive.....

After these three games thinking about this i am growing very very confident about this season..all be it two draws and a win I would like to see how they would also bounce back after a loss this will trully tell how well bould and Wenger could bet the team to respond after a setback...

If we can keep this team working like the unit it is growing into.....

What could we possibly achieve.....

Great things...hope not required.

I think in the past we used to pay lip service to pressing high up the pitch, only ever doing it properly for part of the match or the occasional match where it was done with proper commitment (Chelsea at home just after Christmas two seasons ago was one).

It requires tremendous fitness levels, properly coordinated team effort and much better ball retention than we've shown in the past.

To get back into a deeper defensive position is a much easier strategy. We were generally more compact and not caught out in terrible shape apart from one or two interceptions we gave away and as zonalmarking pointed out Cazorla was revealed of defensive duties to hang about between the lines waiting for counter-attacking opportunities.

Opta Sports ‏@OptaJoe
2 - Arsenal have won as many Premier League games in 2012 at Anfield as Liverpool.

WOW