Well, that was good fun. Liverpool played their best match since their win over Tottenham in August and will be both aggrieved not to have given their overall dominance, but also relieved to have escaped with a point after equalising when they had 10 men. Ultimately they were let down by not taking their chances and by not holding on to their lead just before half-time. But they will be pleased with the way that they played and the fight that showed after going behind. A draw takes them above Everton and into 10th place. As for Arsenal, the two goals aside, that was one of their limpest performances of the season. They have good players but they could do with developing a spine. Thanks for reading. Bye.
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Full-time: Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal
Fun and games in the Liverpool box, but after a Welbeck flick, Sakho gets the ball away, and Michael Oliver blows his final whistle!
90 min+10: Here come Arsenal, though! Cazorla races through the middle and shoots from 20 yards! Jones beats it away but only to Monreal, whose ball back into the middle is desperately hacked behind by Skrtel! In comes the corner and...
GOAL! Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal (Skrtel, 90 min+7)
The ten men of Liverpool equalise from their 10th corner! What spirit! What fight! What a team! Lallana swings it in from the right and Skrtel redeems himself after his part in the first Arsenal goal by rising highest and absolutely bulleting an unstoppable header into the bottom-left corner! Szczesny didn’t move! Oh, Arsenal.
90 min+5: Gerrard smashes a shot towards the bottom-left corner from 30 yards. Szczesny pushes it away and Lallana wins a corner. But his delivery is dismal.
90 min+4: Arsenal bring on Nacho Monreal for Alexis Sanchez.
90 min+3: Cazorla is booked for a foul on Someone. Then he responds to accusations of playacting by lifting up his shirt and showing off a big cut on the side of his stomach. Ouch.
FABIO BORINI IS SENT OFF!
90 min+2: Nine minutes of stoppage time! Nine minutes! Nine minutes of stoppage time for Liverpool to get back into the game! Come on lads! Come on! Come on, the lads! You can do it! That’s what everyone reckons inside Anfield. And then Borini, already on a booking for dissent, catches Cazorla on the chest with a raised boot and he has to go! For crying out loud. They don’t help themselves.
90 min+1: There will be nine minutes of stoppage time as a result of the Skrtel injury. The volume inside Anfield rises. Sterling cuts inside from the left and aims for the near post. Szczesny tips it wide. Can Arsenal hold on?
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90 min: Borini is booked for a fit of pique, chucking the ball to the ground, after a throw-in goes Arsenal’s way. It did come off Cazorla last. Arsenal use up more time by bringing on Joel Campbell for Oxlade-Chamberlain, who appears to have injured his groin.
88 min: Steven Gerrard just did a slip. Ho, ho, ho! But Liverpool are pressing hard. Borini runs into the Arsenal area from the right and has men in the middle. However he aims for the near post and Szczesny shuffles the ball behind. A waste of a promising situation. Szczesny then relieves the pressure on Arsenal by claiming a high ball. Good, authoritative goalkeeping.
87 min: Szczesny makes a good save from a Borini header. Sterling chipped a cross into the middle from the left and Borini headed goalwards from six yards out, but it was close enough for Szczesny to lean back and palm the ball over the bar. Arsenal subsequently survive a couple of corners.
85 min: “What strange new sport is this I am watching?” says Fraser Thomas. “It will never catch on.” It’s actually quite impressive Liverpool are going to lose this game.
84 min: Lallana does brilliantly to pluck a searching ball out of the sky on the left, check back inside and then play a reverse pass through to Coutinho. But from an awkward angle, he shoots wide. Or was it an attempted cross? Either way, it went wide. “I have tried Christmas baking while watching footie before, which always had disastrous results,” says Anna Lioufas. “This year, I thought I would bake while following the game on MBM. So far, I’ve only burned two trays, which is a great improvement on my usual performance. Shame Liverpool can’t say the same.”
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82 min: Arsenal bring on Francis Coquelin for Olivier Giroud, who enrages the Liverpool crowd by walking of very, very, very...
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slowly.
81 min: Rickie Lambert replaces Kolo Toure for Liverpool, who are going for it. And why not? As it stands, they’re going to end the weekend 10 points behind fourth-placed West Ham.
80 min: Arsenal give the ball away. Sterling beats Chambers. His shot is a work of nonsense. Liverpool could do with some swagger training.
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77 min: “This game seems like an air guitar tournament,” says Kevin Healey. “Are these two teams pretending to play or are they pretending they don’t know how to play?”
I bet Brendan’s team-talks have featured a guitar at least once.
76 min: Now Coutinho wastes a chance from the edge of the area with another tame finish. Borini set him up with some good hold-up play but Coutinho’s effort was disappointingly indecisive. “Mr Roper and I can, no doubt, agree to differ,” says Roy Allen. “We can agree that Liverpool’ defence was rubbish last season and remains so. And they should sign Victor Valdes. Season’s greetings!”
75 min: Lucas goes this close to equalising for Liverpool! That’s right, this close, not this close, or this close, or even THIS close. This close. That’s how close. He ran on to a pass from Henderson and the ball sat up invitingly for the shot from inside the D. He slashed it a little and it looked like the ball was going to swerve away from Szczesny and into the right corner; instead it drifted inches wide.
74 min: Fabio Borini on, Lazar Markovic on. The response to his introduction is ... let’s call it muted.
73 min: Welbeck is fine to continue. Meanwhile Fabio Borini, Son of Brendan, is going to come on for Liverpool.
71 min: Now Welbeck is down with a head injury after being caught by Sakho. The physio is on.
70 min: Szczesny immediately throws the ball back to Liverpool. There’s that famous Arsenal game management! It leads to another heroic shot from Super Stevie. This one’s a bit better but it’s still an easy one for Szczesny, who’ll probably be feeling a little relieved.
69 min: Super Stevie bobbles a shot straight at Szczesny from the edge of the area. It was never really on.
67 min: Sterling darts across Debuchy on the left but despite the Arsenal defender over-committing himself and going to ground, Sterling wonks an ambitious effort wide from a tight angle. If he’d just nicked it round Debuchy, he probably would have won a penalty. Oh well. Rickie Lambert is warming up.
66 min: Liverpool, seeking an instant response, carve Arsenal open on the left. Lallana pulls a pass back to Coutinho, who’s unmarked in the area, but he wants too long and is tackled before he can shoot. The ball runs through to Szczesny. “Tell Mr Allen that I am content to assign 20% of the blame on that goal to ‘Safe Hands’ ( (c) J Steinberg),” says Lou Roper. “If he is not content with that we can settle it like idiots, sorry ‘gentlemen’ in the Virtual Reality Venue of his choice! But at the risk of invoking ‘festive spirit’, I don’t think we’re very far apart on this issue nor are the defensive shortcomings of Liverpool FC under B Rodgers worth breaching the holiday peace. Happy Christmas to all !”
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal (Giroud, 65 min)
I was in the middle of writing that Arsenal were showing signs of improvement in this half and now look, they’ve taken the lead with their first coherent attack. Gibbs found Giroud on the edge of the area and he turned a pass through to Cazorla on the left. He cut it back to Giroud and he swept it under Jones from six yards out with his left foot. You really don’t have to do much to score against this Liverpool team.
62 min: Szcznesy embarks on a kamikaze charge outside his area as Sterling sprints on to a pass from Lallana. Sterling, presumably possessed for a fleeting moment by a foreign player, handles the ball around him and suddenly Arsenal are exposed, the officials missing that transgression. Sterling is forced wide on the left and chips a cross into the area, where Gerrard leaps through the air and sends a diving header under pressure just over the bar. There would have been a hot debate if that had gone in.
60 min: Liverpool counter from the Arsenal corner, a lovely volleyed pass from right to left picking out Coutinho. He burns forward and then leaves it to Markovic, whose inviting comeback reaches Lucas on the edge of the area. He blazes miles over the bar. If only it was, well, Gerrard. “At halftime I was going to send you the exact same quote that Mike MacKenzie did,” says JR in Illinois. “I understand that there are many skillful players out there but somehow they are combining to give off a strong whiff of incompetence. Which one of these teams is The Red Lion and which is The Dog and Duck?”
59 min: Skrtel clips Giroud’s heels on the left and gifts Arsenal a cheap free-kick. That leads to a corner.
57 min: Skrtel is up on his feet again, a bandage around his head. He’ll continue and the game can be resumed.
56 min: “Tell Mr Roper I’d be prepared to allocate Jones 5% of the blame for the goal,” says Roy Allen. “If he cant accept that I’ll see him outside at the final whistle to settle this like idiots. I mean men.” There’s the Christmas spirit!
55 min: Skrtel is having stitches inserted but he’s sitting up now, which is good to see.
54 min: Skrtel is still receiving treatment. The stretcher is not on, though. “Hi Jacob, I’ve rarely missed a chance to follow an MBM since the 2002 World Cup, yet still have 4 kids (although 2 of them have chosen to follow their mother’s family and support MUFC, so I’m not sure they count for a West Ham dad),” says Daniel Barnett. “It may well be the case that having 4 of them around is what sends me to seek seclusion in the MBM parallel universe.”
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51 min: Martin Skrtel is down with a head injury, accidentally trodden on by Giroud, who had pushed him over. He’s bleeding from the back of his head. The medical staff are on. “We ‘desperadoes’, pace Roy Allen, do not ‘blame the goalkeeper for every goal’,” says Lou Roper. “The concession of the Arsenal goal, as I noted, was a collective shower, but Jones neither sought to ‘command his area’ nor did he seem to anticipate the looping header that resulted from the head tennis.” Fight! Fight! Fight!
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49 min: Cazorla, the very epitome of anonymity up to this point, diddles his way inside from the left and has a pop from 20 yards. Over it goes. “No adoption needed, I created my offspring fair and square,” boasts Matt Dony. “Like Liverpool last season, a lightning incursion leading to scoring. Boom! (Of course, since then it’s been more like Liverpool this season. Rubbish.)”
48 min: Gerrard’s firm free-kick is headed out as far as Coutinho on the edge of the area but his shot is wild. “Loved Coutinho’s post goal self-rant,” says Ian Copestake. “It seemed to go on for ever. Disappointed it did not go on long enough to bring the half-time whistle before that Arsenal goal.”
47 min: A stepover from Sterling flummoxes Debuchy, who steps across him and earns a booking. Liverpool have a free-kick to the left of the Arsenal area.
46 min: Off we go again. Surely there has to be an improvement from Arsenal in the second half? “I understand natural tendency of the fancy-dan pseudo-footballers we call “outfield players” to blame the keeper for every goal that is conceded but blaming Jones for the Arsenal goal is particularly desperate,” says Roy Allen. “How about Lucas and Skrtel who were brushed aside by Arsenal players. Arsenal players!!! I ask you!”
Looking at the Arsenal goal again, I can’t quite work out why Brad Jones didn’t just come off his line. The ball was in the air for an age.
Half-time emails
“I feel sorry for Flamini,” says Joe Lewis-White. “Surely he is all over the place due to being the only truly defensive minded central midfielder in this 442 Wenger has switched to mid-game. Liverpool are clearly strong through the middle (last season’s success with a narrow diamond is proof) and with Countinho having a good game I can imagine Flamini must be feeling hard done by.”
“That was an inanely weak attempt by Brad Jones,” says Fraser Thomas. “Surely Mignolet cannot be that bad?”
“The wretched Jones cannot emerge with much credit from the shower that allowed that equaliser,” says Lou Roper.
“If Liverpool do go on to win this one, is the crisis officially over?” says Philip Ritson. “Who’d have though Liverpool’s best policy would be three at the back, two marauding wing-backs and Coutinho, Sterling and Lallana up front? Didn’t see that one coming. Mind you, it took BR a while to figure it out too!”
“How predictable was Arsenal’s goal?” says Paul Ewart. “3 years in and still no game management in this Liverpool team. Pleased with the performance but where are the leaders? Where’s the savvy?”
“That has to be one of the most insanely inept performances I’ve seen in Premiership history from any team,” says David Lamont. “I cannot believe how players like Cazorla and Sanchez were devoid of the ability to make the most routine of passes. It was actually getting surreal at points. Yet 1-1 and they are probably the most likely to go on and win. Football is odd.”
“Deja vu all over again for Liverpool ... I wonder what must go through BR’s mind at such times?” says Mike MacKenzie. “As the famous baseball manager, Casey Stengel, used to say: “Can’t anyone here play this game?” Most annoying is that they had defended fairly well until then.”
“Even MBMers are allowed to adopt kids,” says Ian Copestake.
Really. How would that process go?
“What are your hobbies?”
“Emailing Jacob Steinberg.”
“Who’s Jacob Steinberg?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Application approved!”
“Your mention of Torres made me yearn,” says Matt Dony. “Suarez leaving was obviously disappointing, but it made me realise I never loved him like I loved Torres. I made my 3yr old son watch a video of all Torres’ Liverpool goals, and I’d truly forgotten just how many very, very good goals were in there. Still. Borini on the bench.”
Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.
MBM readers have children?
Half-time: Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
Well, Liverpool will be deflated.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal (Debuchy, 45 min+1)
Arsenal get out of jail, Liverpool self-imploding from a set-piece on the stroke of half-time AGAIN! The ball was flung in from the right by Sanchez and a spot of head tennis ensued. Liverpool couldn’t get it away and Flamini kept the ball alive, heading it to the far post, where Debuchy rose above Skrtel and sent a powerful header past Jones! That’s dismal from Skrtel. So submissive. To be fair, it’s a fine response from Arsenal.
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GOAL! GREAT GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Coutinho, 45 min)
Arsenal get exactly what their first-half atrociousness deserves and it’s a goal that sums their performance up. The ball is needlessly given away AGAIN in Liverpool’s half and Henderson seizes on it, finding Coutinho on the edge of the area with a sharp pass. He’s been in this position so many times already but hasn’t been able to come up with a killer touch. This time, he does. He drops a shoulder to beat his man and arrows a brilliant shot in off the the inside of the right post with his right foot! Anfield erupts!
43 min: Liverpool are up in arms as Flamini clumsily clatters into Lallana on the right. The man is all over the place. He’s on a booking already but Michael Oliver is lenient enough not to give him a second yellow, perhaps reasoning that he’s probably as much use to Liverpool on the pitch as he would be off it.
40 min: Do you like pictures? Er, who doesn’t? Click here. But be sure to come back to this page once you’ve finished.
39 min: Arsenal’s midfield evaporates again and Sterling is able to gallop through the middle and tee up Markovic, who leans back and skies his shot from 20 yards into the top tier of the Anfield Road End. Oh for some ruthlessness! Oh for Luis Suarez! “Regarding ifs and buts Jacob, can’t help but wonder if arsenal would be overrun if they had all the center midfield greats that wenger was worried about a fabregas return “killing”...........probably....,” says Rob Lowery.
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36 min: Brad Jones, hitherto unemployed, has to wake up and speed out of his area to get to a through-ball before Giroud and boot the ball out of play. That’s the danger for Liverpool. They have to make more of their superiority, else you fear that they’re going to be on the end of a sucker-punch from Arsenal.
35 min: Szczesny makes an excellent save to deny Markovic after poor defending from Chambers! A cross-field pass from right to left should have been cut out by Chambers but his touch was loose and Markovic was alert enough to pounce on it. He zigzagged into the area, through on goal, but he couldn’t direct his poke past Szczesny, who diverted it behind for a corner.
34 min: In fact, it’s 4-4-2 from Arsenal, Welbeck joining Giroud up front, Flamini and Oxlade-Chamberlain in the middle, Sanchez on the left, Cazorla on the right.
33 min: Arsenal have switched Sanchez to the left flank. He’s contributed almost nothing from the right so far.
30 min: Liverpool have their first shot on target, Coutinho skimming one straight at Szczesny from 30 yards. “Arsenal are like mannequins,” Gary Neville observes on Sky. Flamini is being overrun. Ifs and buts, but what you can’t help but wonder what Liverpool might have during this period if Sturridge had been fit.
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29 min: Markovic scoops an impudent pass over Chambers’s head and Arsenal are grateful that Mertesacker is in the right place to hack clear with Sterling closing in.
27 min: Some of the pretty patterns Liverpool are weaving have been very nice to watch but what they really need with now is a cutting edge. They’re yet to create a proper chance, which may be a worry given their overall dominance. At some point, Arsenal do have the players to take advantage. Not that they’re doing anything at the moment.
25 min: Coutinho slides a pass through the heart of the Arsenal defence, looking for Sterling, but Szcesny is out quickly to boot it clear.
23 min: Sanchez runs at Sakho, who sticks out a leg, inviting the Chilean to go down. Michael Oliver seems unimpressed but then, to Liverpool’s amazement, awards a corner. He rather fudged that. The corner is a waste of time, though, scuffed straight to the first Liverpool defender.
22 min: Markovic loses the ball inside Liverpool’s half and suddenly Arsenal pour forward. Oxlade-Chamberlain finds Welbeck on the edge of the area but Toure steps in. The danger’s not over, though. A cross reaches the head of Giroud but his team header is straight at Jones, who collects it easily.
20 min: Arsenal have had 13% of the possession in the past 10 minutes. On the plus side, unlike last season, they’re not 4-0 down.
19 min: Markovic drives inside from the left and picks out Lallana on the edge of the area. Time seems to stand still. Markovic runs around the outside of Lallana but it’s a decoy run, one that allows Lallana to duck inside, on to his left foot, and shoot. Deflected. Wide. Corner. Nothing comes from it.
18 min: By the way, Arsenal have lined up with Debuchy in the middle and Chambers on the right of their defence. I should probably have told you that 18 minutes ago. “Yes, to be fair, Downing should be ‘in the XI’; drop the lightweight Coutinho (although he should do well against lightweight opposition such as today’s) and move Sterling to #10,” says Lou Roper.
17 min: It’s a little too intricate from Liverpool. For all their possession, they haven’t been able to pick the Arsenal lock yet. If only they had a Fernando Torres. Now there’s a thought for the January transfer window.
14 min: Gerrard’s corner from the right goes out and back in. Goal-kick to Arsenal. Still, it’s not the worst corner from an England player this year.
13 min: Flamini is booked for trying to step round Coutinho and win the ball, but tackling from the wrong side succeeds only in catching the Brazilian. From Gerrard’s free-kick, Liverpool win a corner, Debuchy heading behind.
12 min: Lallana, an impish little scheme, exchanges passes with Markovic and spins brilliantly on the edge of the area, before sending a warning shot not too far over Szcznesny’s bar. Arsenal were guilty of not tracking Lallana’s run. Liverpool are the better side at the moment. Arsenal haven’t got going at all.
11 min: I wonder if Brendan Rodgers would have reconfigured Big Andy as a centre-back this season.
10 min: Liverpool do the crossing thing. Unfortunately Andy Carroll plays for West Ham now.
8 min: They deal with this one comfortably enough, however, Cazorla plonking the ball straight into the grasp of Brad ‘Safe Hands’ Jones, who promptly chucks the ball straight back to Arsenal. “That ‘foreign coach’ spiel from Rodgers is worrying,” says Matt Dony. “If things go back downhill, it could become a ‘Sam Allardici’-shaped stick to beat him with. And so far this season, I’m really fed up of the beatings.”
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7 min: Giroud pops up on the left and backheels the ball into the path of Gibbs, who’s sent sprawling to the turf by Lucas. He escapes without a booking. But Arsenal have a free-kick on the left. Liverpool, you may have heard, struggle when they have to defend set-pieces.
6 min: Liverpool have started at a brisk pace, bossing possession and moving with slick purpose, although Lallana can’t bring a long pass down on the right, the ball running behind for a goal-kick.
4 min: Alexis Sanchez has a touch of the ball and, momentarily, Liverpool’s hearts sink. Not to worry, though, he’s offside!
3 min: He can fancy it all he likes but Gerrard whips the ball past the right post. Arsenal get away with it. But that was a worrying moment for the visitors, the way Liverpool streamed forward on the counter-attack.
2 min: How refreshing to see that Arsenal have learnt their lesson from last season. Mathieu Flamini disappears in the middle of the pitch and allows Phillipe Coutinho a free run at the backtracking Mertesacker, who hangs out a leg and brings down the flying Brazilian just outside the D. Steven Gerrard fancies this.
And we’re off! With the strains of You’ll Never Walk Alone floating around Anfield, Liverpool get the game underway, defending the Kop in the first half. Let’s see how well they manage to defend it. It’s been their achilles heel this season. “How about this XI for our match today v ‘Gooners’: 1 Reina 2 Kelly 3 Johnson 4 Skrtel 5 Agger 6 Lucas 7 Shelvey 8 Gerrard 9 Carroll (begun to knock them in for West Ham) 10 Coutinho 11 Sterling?” says Lou Roper. “Oh. Is there any chance at least that Father Christmas might whisk away Manquillo and Allen to fill some naughty club’s stocking?” You’ve left out Downing.
Here come the teams, the pair of them needlessly decked out in tracksuit tops. Despite that nonsense, they’re greeted by warm applause by a forgiving Anfield crowd. “Good afternoon Jacob, and season’s greetings,” says Simon McMahon. “Hope you’re wearing your hipster Christmas jumper, maybe a mince pie and glass of egg nog at your side too. Let’s hope it’s a case of both defences bearing gifts today. 4-4 please.”
A Christmas jumper? I don’t think so. It’s pretty warm in Guardian Towers.
@JacobSteinberg one of the only times Arsenal looked rampant this season was against Galatasaray's hastily cobbled together 3 man defence
— Peter Simpson (@P_J_Simpson) December 21, 2014
On the other hand, they were beaten by Manchester United’s three-man defence. Who knows what to think?
Brendan speaks. “Our performance [against Bournemouth] was excellent, we had good creativity, our passing was crisp and fast. It’s been a struggle this season, trying to find the balance in the team. Hopoefully in the last few weeks or so, I’ve started to see that.”
Arsene Wenger, meanwhile, confirms that Hector Bellerin is injured, hence the return of Calum Chambers, and the Arsenal manager reckons that his side can exploit Liverpool on the flanks. Step forward, Alexis Sanchez!
This is very creative.
Some arsenal lads making a 'banner' on the train here. Thierry Christmas. pic.twitter.com/voT8XKXKNS
— Chris Hudson (@christwinny) December 21, 2014
“A pressure game for all and sundry both managers & both squads of players under massive pressure,” John McEnerney notes. “Sad to say it but both these clubs could end up like both Milan clubs gone to the dogs not challenging just making the odd half decent cameo like Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction & True Romance. This could be an absolute cracker but I don’t think so. Arsenal to sneak it with the winner from one of their pint sized magicians.”
Well now hang on. Look at him go!
The teams!
Liverpool, masterfully assembled by King Brenny: Jones; Toure, Skrtel, Sakho; Henderson, Lucas, Gerrard, Markovic; Coutinho, Sterling, Lallana. Subs: Jose Enrique, Lambert, Moreno, Manquillo, Mignolet, Can, Borini.
Arsenal insert Calum Chambers into the heart of their defence: Szczesny; Debuchy, Chambers, Mertesacker, Gibbs; Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Sanchez, Cazorla, Welbeck; Giroud. Subs: Podolski, Walcott, Monreal, Martinez, Campbell, Coquelin, Maitland-Niles.
Referee: Michael Oliver.
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All hail The Great Brendinho! Seriously, all hail him. Now. This is not a test. He really wants us to hail him and things could get testy if we don’t. Look: “The other night it was a British coach playing 3-4-3 so he has probably thrown the team together,” The Great Brendinho spake. “‘He has played seven midfielders?’ If it was a foreign coach it would probably have been seen as a wonderful tactical idea of playing the game. ‘Sterling playing through the middle – what is he doing? [Lazar] Markovic out wide?’ But that is the key for us – trying to get the players in position who can make us effective.”
Aren’t humans needy? This, remember, was The Great Brendinho speaking after a spectacular 3-1 dismantling of Bournemouth in the Capital One Cup, so just imagine how much praise he’d be showering himself with if he’d come up with this masterplan for a game of genuine significance, a Champions League final, say, or maybe a title-deciding game against, ooohhhh, I don’t know, Chelsea at home. Lest we forget, the use of the same formation three days earlier against Manchester United saw Liverpool depart Old Trafford with their tails between their legs after a 3-0 defeat, so perhaps Rodgers shouldn’t get too carried away. After all, there’s every chance Arsenal are going to ram Rodgers’s trumpet down his throat while he’s blowing on it. And then he’d choke on it.
That said, all hilarious joking aside, it is true that Liverpool have looked a little better in attack in the past two games. Poor finishing against United was as much their undoing as their rubbish defending – imagine how bad Brad Jones must be at slapsies – and they were quick and inventive against Bournemouth. The hope for Rodgers is that although he has been deprived of Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez, this system can help Liverpool rediscover some of last season’s attacking magic, although it would surely all be going so much better if Alexis Sanchez had chosen them instead of Arsenal.
This afternoon, Liverpool come face to face with the one that got away. Crushingly for Rodgers, Sanchez really has been very good for Arsenal and they probably don’t want to think about where they’d be without his goals (as it is, they’re seventh, five points behind fourth-placed West Ham). Sanchez has been the difference on so many occasions for Arsenal, not that his presence alone has been enough to cover up the multitude of defensive flaws that continue to hold Arsenal back. Going forward, Arsenal are clicking and they were excellent in last week’s 4-1 defeat of Newcastle United. Yet they were abysmal two weeks ago at Stoke and, after last season’s psychologically destructive 5-1 defeat at Anfield, Arsenal may be apprehensive about what The Great Brendinho has in store for them this time.
Kick-off: 4pm.
