Well, things started well… there was good news when the team was announced, as Trev’s suggestion that we might see both Saka and Timber in the line-up proved on the money. That meant White lined up next to Gabriel in central defence, with the Dutchman at left-back and Partey slotting in at right-back.
The game began with more effort than quality, both teams full of energy but not settling into their rhythm, until the ninth minute when Saka showed just how valuable he is, chasing a well-timed ball from White, bamboozling Robertson with the cut-back before firing his shot high into the net at the near post past a helpless Kelleher.
The Emirates was rocking. What we needed was to put our foot on the ball and keep the lead for a bit. However, we were a bit cagey and it was clear both sets of players knew how big the occasion was.
Timber looked rusty, misplacing a couple of passes, but he was up for the battle with the evergreen Salah.
Merino let a ball slide under his foot, and we were lucky the talismanic Eygptian curled his resulting effort wide. We did not take advantage of the reprieve as three minutes later they were level.
Partey would not have been thrilled when he got the nod to go toe-to-toe with Luiz Diaz for the afternoon, but he put in one hell of a shift against the skilful Columbian. Not a natural right-back, he was always going to have a few hairy moments though.
Unfortunately, after doing well to put the ball behind for a corner, it was the Ghanaian who got on the wrong side of Van Dyke, who nodded home Luiz Diaz’s near post flick. It is the sort of cheap goal that you cannot afford to concede in a big game, and it was entirely our own fault. It is hard not to think that Saliba would have cleared it though.
We were the better side for most of the half, although Liverpool had a couple of spells were they kept the ball, and they have skilful, hardworking players who have seamlessly transitioned from the tutelage of one excellent coach to another.
Both teams had good positions that they failed to convert into clear chances. Saka looked very dangerous, and the opposition resorted to fouling him repeatedly. Anthony Taylor was lenient in letting the game flow, but his decisions favoured the away side who were on the back foot.
Quite how Van Dyke did not get a yellow for not one but two petulant off-the-ball kicks at Havertz is beyond me: he deliberately kicked out at a fellow professional with no intention to play the ball or even gain an advantage, just to hurt him; the ref gestured to show he had seen the incident clearly… and issued no card.
It was a blatant and spiteful action from Van Dyke. We get punished for every minor infraction; how do other teams get away with stuff which is actually bad?
It was therefore not without a sense of justice that I watched a hugely lengthy VAR check (is there any other kind? And, given it was an offside call and presumably just a matter of drawing the lines, what the hell were they discussing for so long?) eventually deem that Van Dyke’s foot had played on Merino when he stooped to head home his first Arsenal goal from one of a series of excellent dead-ball deliveries from Rice, regaining us the advantage just before half-time. It was well deserved.
We did not come out on the front foot for the second half, and this time it was Liverpool who had the better of proceedings, albeit our reticence was influenced by the fact that we were ahead on the scoreboard.
Anthony Taylor seemed to give every 50-50 Liverpool’s way, and persistently failed to give us free kicks for the same things he was giving them to Liverpool. Havertz was kicked and pulled but got nothing from him. I really don’t mind letting things flow in these big games, but it has to be consistent for both sides, and it did not look like that to me.
We were not aided at all when Gabriel had to go off barely five minutes into the half, being replaced by Kiwior. Timber lasted barely twenty minutes more, Lewis-Skelly coming on for him. Perhaps it was always a big ask for him to play the full match (especially up against Salah) but we getting a rough run of luck with injuries at the moment. A back line of Partey, White, Kiwior and Lewis-Skelly is not even close to first choice and in the end it cost us.
With less than ten minutes of the ninety remaining, we broke forwards and the ball came to Martinelli on the left. I love him as a player, but today there were a few times when he received the ball in great positions and failed to make it count. He lost the ball too easily and Pool had it up the other end in seconds, Kiwior sucked towards it but unable to make an interception, leaving Salah alone to run into the space and receive the pass inside before firing past the despairing dive of Raya.
This felt a bit like the kind of goal we used to concede in Europe, one born of leaving too much space as we attacked without caution, but perhaps it was not as tactical as all that and the simple truth is that Liverpool would not have scored that goal against our usual defence because they are just better defenders. Hardly rocket science to suggest that the second-string aren’t as good, and to be fair, they were all decent on the day and worked hard, but we will have to hope that Arteta has a full complement to choose from more often than not.
We took off a tired Saka (much quieter in the second half) and Martinelli for Nwaneri and Jesus, and we found new impetus going forward.
We had a couple more half-chances but nothing worth recounting until we reached injury time, when we had a goal disallowed.
Kiwior made a clumsy challenge, which I can absolutely see could be a foul, except for the fact that it was exactly the sort of challenge that Taylor had been letting Liverpool (especially Nunez) get away with all match. My problem is that he clearly sees the foul, does not blow his whistle, waits until Havertz wins the next challenge to go through one-on-one with Kelleher, and then blows his whistle and points back to the first challenge. Why the delay?
Look, maybe he is just taking a moment to make up his mind. But after the run of decisions we have had lately, I think all Gooners watching this sequence of events, seeing the referee not award a free kick until the moment that the move has developed into a goalscoring opportunity for us (especially after the way he had refereed the match until that point) are going to be wondering quite why we are seeing actions that go against our team refereed differently to ones performed by our team?
I just don’t know what the rules are or how they will be applied game by game. All I know is that however they are applied and regardless of how unjust it appears, the referees will be justified and vindicated in all they do in the media. This is making PL football tough to watch at the moment, especially when the quality of the refs in our Champions League matches this season have provided such stark contrast with their competence and professionalism.
However, despite the lingering sense of injustice, the thing that has most stayed with me is how proud I am of our players. Despite the injuries and suspension, they put in a shift, to a man, against a top side with a referee helping them out, and still didn’t lose the match.
Saka was quality. Trossard played some lovely stuff under pressure. Rice worked his socks off. Merino is improving with every game. Kiwior may not be quite as good as some of his colleagues, but it took a lot of nerve to come into that backline, especially after a mistake last week, and he made clearances and showed character to put his foot on the ball and pass it out. Lewis-Skelly impresses greatly, as does Nwaneri. Raya was good, getting fingertips to one Salah cross that made all the difference. Every player pulled their finger out, and if we keep doing that then we will have a great season.
Right now, it seems like things are going against us, but it will get better, and we will look back on this tough period as the making of this group this year. This may yet be a vital point.
Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Until next time, ‘holics.
Many thanks GSD for a great account of a game I still haventseen as it took place during my flight from Seattle to Minneapolis-St. Paul. The recorded game will be available for me to watch, probably tomorrow, and I will be looking out for the key incidents ofthe matchyou described. Thanks also for your positive spin on the match which makes me look forward more optimistically to my viewing of it.
A superb account of the game I saw, GSD, with the balance and incision characteristic of the Guvna at his best. I too am proud of that collection of heroes and stand-ins, frustrated at another execrable referee’s decisive yet inexplicable impact and looking forward to the recovery of our walking wounded. Partey, despite his error for van Dyke’s goal, was a revelation at inverted RB. Heroes all.
All of what Bath said.
Splendid and accurate write-up, GSD!
Thanks for your usual balanced, positive and accurate report GSD.
There were several aspects to this game . We were below strength and miss Odegaard enormously. Saliba’s mobility would have been so useful but I thought Partey and White were excellent , Rice was back to his best and Merino made a big contribution to a very challenging game . Saka was sensational in the first half .
Taylor was inconsistency itself and apart from needing to go to Specsavers there was almost an implicit bias in his refereeing well described by GSD. His refereeing of the Nwaneri ‘ goal’ was deplorable and it should have gone to VAR as should the Van Dijk assault on Havertz .
I feel Arteta relies too much on our defensive solidity as we drop deep in big games. We had a very changed back line yesterday and the impetus we got from the changes after they scored was obvious . Both times we conceded we came back to dominate the game. Maybe if we’d been on the front foot more ? But a point was a noble effort in the circumstances and I hope we ring the changes before Newcastle and test how good some of our youngsters can be
An excellent summary with virtually identical points of view to mine on all of the critical issues in the game and consequences thereof, GSD.
Sadly, it’s becoming quite difficult not to drift into the third C on the sliding scale of football refereeing doom:
Consistency
Competence
Corruption
However, despite starting and then finishing with two back fours that had never played a competitive game together, Arsenal were the better team and really should have won that game. Disappointment in the camp is therefore completely understandable, but to your point, there wass a huge amount yesterday of which both players and fans should be extremely proud.
Had Gabriel and Timber stayed fit, I think we don’t lose the second goal.
Our first choice eleven absolutely thumps that Liverpool team, no matter who they play in goal, and whether Jotta or Nunez starts up front. If the fitness gods allow it, we’ll see that happen in the return at Anfield.
COYG
Thanks Dino for avery fair report. I’ve got to say I enjoyed this match and thought it a fair result. Two excellent teams, shorn of some of their best players, with some great technical skill and pace shown. Our fans were super, super loud. A real shame we were robbed of that third goal, which looked like a good one from very close in the North Bank.
So after 9 games we have 18 points. After 9 games last year we had 18 points. From our next two league games, Newcastle away and Chelsea away, we got one point last year. I think it may be critical to our title challenge that we take six points this year. No pressure lads.
Top report, GSD. Not a word to disagree with, especially about the officiating. If an Arsenal player had kicked out at an opponent as Van Dyke did at Havertz, an incident Taylor acknowledged he saw, you just know that red cards would have come into play.
Also, for those who missed it before the chevrons fell in the previous drinks, the GHF Predictathon leaderboard for Match Week 9 has been posted. We have a new leader and quite a large shuffling of the pack.
You know where to find it…
Ten Hag gets the tin tack.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/28/manchester-united-sack-erik-ten-hag?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
And the GHF Predictathon has its first winners of the season. Bath, BtM and Steveyhyperdee share the Tin Tack award. Congratulations to them.
Never in doubt, Ned 🙂
But to build on C100’s Arsenal has 18 points plays 18 points stat vs last season, I suspect that collectively, our Prediction Stats don’t compare well with this stage of the season last time around?
I should have said I very much enjoyed lunch before the game with TTG, Bathgooner, 21CG and, of course my son. Much wisdom was spoken (well it seemed that way to me as the red wine went down). And the two twenty somethings at the table displayed that their knowledge of our club was well up to that of the three elder statesmen. Although they did blink a bit when Bath was talking about Gus Caesar.
This seems a good time to wish 21CG and CER well as they begin a trio of three long distance away games involving very early mornings and evenings: Preston; Newcastle (12.30 kickoff) and Inter Milan. Outstanding support!
BtM@11:👏👏👏
Thanks Dino, an excellent report.
And well done Gents on naming Ten Haag.
Pity really as I was happy he was never going to do anything
at Manure. Hopefully they choose Southgate as their next manager.
Excellent write-up, GSD. Great spirit. Better analysis than those muppets in the meeja.
Keep the faith.
Big plates of scrambled eggs and steins of Guinness on the bar.
MCMBD
Well, blow me down.
It appears your “humble” foreign brother-in-arms is atop both competitive tables this morn’. I shall celebrate now with more meat and drink. Lars, do bring ur wallet. 🙂
Oh, and Ned, although that was a quality header for the latest Predictathon update, I must object as I happen to have about eighty-five head of cattle back on the Georgia homestead. 😉
Enjoy the week, ‘Holics, lots of football left to be played. The fat lady hasn’t even begun to squeeze into her bodice yet.
MCMBD
C100@13 – glad lunch was good yesterday. Truly a Brains Tryst! After a week on the road in France and Belgium and then a weekend up in Stratford with friends, I was in no condition to make lunch and bring the average down!
An excellent performance I thought, given a clearly not fully fit Saka and Timber, no Saliba for highly dubious reasons, and Odegaard, Calafiori and Tomiyasu all out injured, and then Gabriel having to go off too. The ground was loud and the fans were well and truly backing the team.
One thing I found very interesting was that more and more fans are beginning to regard the refereeing performances as questionable. One guy asked a pertinent question out loud – if “it all evens out in the end” his come City get so few of these questionable decisions against them? I thought it interesting that the referee and his accompanying clowns were booed off by what felt like the entire ground.
Trust, not tryst!
Maybe a Brains Tryst too?
Yeah the supports was very loud, fantastic atmosphere.
Safe travels, travellers!
Thx Ollie. Looking to meet up with C100 for a pie and a pint at Preston pre match. Not looking forward to getting home at about 3.30 am.
Nor am I looking forward to getting up at 3 am to meet the coach for Newcastle on Saturday. Ah well, C100 has done these trips for so long , it feels churlish to complain!
CER@22. We look forward to full reports from behind enemy lines from Preston, Newcastle and the San Siro! Believe you also have your eyes set on visiting Sporting Lisbon where, according to rumours, their manager is Old Trafford bound (swapping Lisbon for Salford, he must be off his head).
LG@18: I was, of course, referring to the collective company 😉 but you were the only one who picked up on the nuance of the headline. Keep your lead for a week and I’ll try to come up with a peach of a headline for you…
CER@22: Spoiler alert: There will be a Preston pub recommendation in the match preview.
A game we deserved to win but if you told me beforehand our back line would be Partey, White, Kiwior and MLS, I’d have taken 2-2.
4-4-2’s Adam Clery on the ‘Pool game.
Thanks for the link Ned @26. As ever an excellent analysis from Adam Clery and clear contextualisation of that second Scouse goal.
Excellent job- thanks, GSD !
Only one point of issue – I don’t believe it was a foul by Kiwior for one second in the build up to that third “goal”. Kiwior jumped to win the ball in the air and Szoboszlai (?) made a cowardly back underneath him in true Harry Kane fashion. It’s a particular bugbear of mine. It’s dangerous, cowardly and I hate it. If there was a foul involved it should have gone against Liverpool.
Anyway, more points lost to another unaccountable official making another unfathomable decision. It really does seem like PGMOL are out for revenge on Arteta after he called them out at Newcastle last season.
As you say though, the team and all the stand-ins did us proud. We will come out of this period of injuries with a stronger squad. Just a shame that so many injuries struck at once.
Sorry to have taken so long to get involved – I’ve been feeling like death warmed up for a couple of days.
I’m sitting on a train to London with three Tottnumb fans – all below the age of 8! Is it possible to save them from a life of misery ?They seem nice kids . Just misguided.
Re our lunch it needs to be said that after C100’s dodgy Chicken Milanese last time out, Bath and I will not be sampling the Ecuadorean lamb stew again . I shall remember this next time I am in Quito .
It was indeed a delightful mixing of the generations and 21CG and Countryman Junior are very well-versed in Gooner folklore . Their fathers have raised them well .
Good luck to the long- distance travellers this week.
My report on the Preston match will be composed from the comfort of my sofa ! I am a card-carrying lightweight .
Trev. Yeah, I agree about the Kiwior ‘foul’ in that I don’t think it is a foul. I know it winds you up because it is a type of foul (by Szoboszlai) that refs consistently give the wrong way. In that sense, I can see why it was given – it seems daft to comment on refereeing decisions as though the officials are competent. I’m at the point where I tend to take their irrational, scattergun egotism as the baseline standard, and tend to view situations more as ‘given we know the referees are not fit for purpose, it is understandable how this mistake was made’.
They are so consistently terrible at their jobs that it is shameful.
I also didn’t mention the potential penalty on Martinelli, partly because I suspected that the ball touching Msrtinelli’s shoulder might be used to claim he handled the ball. Apparently though, PGMOL have not said that, instead claiming the defender got a touch on the ball. I have not bee able to see any touch, and if that is their argument for the non-award of a penalty then I think that is another piece of woeful officiating.
The PL referees are embarrassing. Even worse, is that they are not embarrassed themselves. They live in an insulated dreamland where they all tell each other they are good at their jobs.
Cheers Ned for the link to Adam Clery. He is bang on the money, as usual. Really excellent video.
Given the clear evidence that they do like to be in the spotlight (why should well rewarded skilful players get all the kudos?) and that they regularly play fast and loose with the Laws to influence the results of games, is it unreasonable to suspect that the preposterous penalty awarded to Wet Spam against Manure was PGMOL wresting the agenda into their own hands to determine the timing of Ten Hag’s sacking? Or is that just too fanciful?
That’s all part of the ‘Entertainment’!
Liverpool must be fuming about the inconsistency of PGMOL, too. How come they had to play us 11 v 11 for the full game? Dark mutterings of pro-Manchester conspiracy theories.
Mike McDonald on the ‘Pool game:
Oh yes, GSD, PGMOL certainly said that about the penalty. While I had no particular opinion on it as it was at the other end of the Stadium, they did make a show of putting the whole decision on the big screens in the stadium (about five or six lines of text, I think) that claimed Konaté made contact with the ball (which, as we know, is not a black and white way to say whether a foul has taken place or not, but that’s another debate). They did so a whole FIVE minutes after the incident, so when they displayed that, I was wondering what they were on about!
Ned
Mike is spot-on with his blog this week. I’m very against the idea that there is systematic corruption in the PGMOL but totally convinced that there is systematic incompetence ( is that a thing?) This supports GSD’s contention that the media crave controversy and hope we get arguments about decisions . I do worry about the culture of the PGMOL . I was very perturbed by the comments on the Rice sending off tape to Kavanagh ‘ Look after yourself Chris ‘.What the hell does that mean ! What existential threat is facing him ? How many refs have been shot by sniper fire at Ashburton Grove ?’ . He was in much more jeopardy by making a stupid, ill- thought through decision than a measured one supported by the visual evidence .
Compare that to a rugby discussion on TMO . Kavanagh would have deconstructed his decision and compared it with their view of events on that basis .He did nothing of the sort. Similarly with the Van Dijk incidents , neither of which went to VAR although they concerned a potential red card and a decisive goal in one of the pivotal matches of the season , Taylor should have given his recollection of events to VAR and compared it with their evidence on film . It would surely have resulted in different decisions if he did . But as Mike says they ignored them and took five minutes to confirm Merino was onside . Please bring in semi- automated onsides asap. And better refs – apparently there are some outside NW England .
Thanks for the various links, as usual Adam and Mike present very clear points of view.
Perhaps the systematic incompetence is a cunning cover for the occasionally lucrative corruption. I jest, as of course it’s impossible to say for certain. However, if you have a system where the rules are so secretively applied and vaguely justified by a small cliche then to me corruption is almost inevitable.
I don’t watch much Spanish football so very rarely watch Vinicius play. I’m sure he’s a good player. I am struck though by Real Madrid throwing all their toys out of the pram because he hasn’t won the Ballon d’Or.
It seems very disrespect to Rodri. He’s not a chap I much like, but he’s one hell of a player and and a key part of success for both his domestic and national team. It doesn’t strike me as some sort of huge injustice that he’s been picked over Vini Jr. Certainly not like when Nedved beat Henry, despite the hyperbole in Brazil. Sometimes that’s just how it goes. Sometimes playing for Real Madrid and Brazil is not a guarantee of winning the award, despite fans of both seeming to think their players have a divine right.
Am I wrong? Has Vini been robbed? Did his Brazil side do something noticeable that I missed? I know he was top scorer in La Liga but he wasn’t close to any records was he? How much value should be put on top scoring in a league where your club wins most games without getting out of 2nd gear?
Do claims that he has been less popular in the voting because he is publicly against racism have any validity? It would be shameful if they did. Frankly, I’d expect that to go in his favour rather than against him, but I don’t know much about who votes for the thing and what their opinions or prejudices may be. Then again, using racism as a smokescreen to complain because your excellent player hasn’t got as many votes as a different excellent player is also not cool. Every false accusation undermines real ones and should not be made lightly, especially if it is simply because you don’t like the way the voting went.
Does anyone else have any thoughts or any information that might shed a bit more light on this?
@38
I agree that Real Madrid’s behavior is just absurd.
One quick thing would be that Vini certainly wasn’t top scorer in La Liga last season.
Tbh, I laughed happily at RM taking the high moral ground and saying they wouldn’t go where they were disrespected, they won’t be round to my place for tea then.
But I do also agree that Vini is a good player.
GSD, one argument that was also advanced (on top of Brazil not having done well at Copa America, which Real counterbalanced by saying ‘but then Carvajal should have won it – a further proof that to them it didn’t matter who exactly won it as long as it was one of theirs) is that vote was actually split a little more due to several Real playeds being highly placed contenders. In fact, they came 2nd, 3rd and 4th, Bellingham being the other one.
Which I think is a valid argument. Fittingly, Real won the ‘best team’ award.
In fact, they won that and best manager also with Ancelotti.
You could add Mbappé who won the ‘top scorer’ award jointly with Kane, not as a Madrid player but was still prevented to attend and collect his trophy by his new club.
So yes, Real’s behavious is petty, ridiculous, entitled, everything that’s wrong. I mean they won the club thing but to them it’s more important that an individual, any individual from their club, wins the most prestigious player award.
There have been a lot of bigger ‘disrespects’ before for this award, arguably Henry not winning it, and definitely the trophy not being awarded when Lewandowski should have won it in CoVid years. But heh, he’s not moaning, he’s well at the top of the scoring charts in Spain at 36 of age and just scored a brace against….Real. Oh yes I reckon their getting trashed by Barça at the weekend contributed to this show od pettiness.
Have a bit of this for further reading:
https://www.planetfootball.com/real-madrid/times-real-madrid-pettiest-club-world-football-ballon-dor-boycott-perez
Note also that the organisers said the results of the top contenders were not known to anyone from either City or Real, etc. until the official disclosure, but I’m not totally sure about that, I’m sure that even if unofficial there would have been a leak somewhere.
Apparently Real had also planned a five hour live broadcast around the event initially, heh.
GSD@38: According to UEFA, this is how Ballon d’Or voting works (the other awards are done similarly or are close variants:
The Ballon d’Or is awarded by an international jury of specialised journalists, with one representative per country, from the top 100 in the latest FIFA rankings (before the lists are published) for men and the top 50 for women.
Each juror selects ten players in descending order of merit from a list of 30 established by the editorial staff of France Football, members of the editorial staff of L’Équipe, the best juror from the previous edition – Costa Rica for the men’s Ballon d’Or, South Africa for the women’s Ballon d’Or – and UEFA ambassadors Luís Figo for the men’s trophy and Nadine Kessler for the women’s trophy.
The ten selected players are awarded 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point respectively. The Ballon d’Or is awarded to the player with the highest number of points.
I wonder if Madrid’s petulance is a bit of afters from the whole Superleague thing.
>>>>>>>
Finally got to see a game at Emirates. Last home game I saw my Gunners was at Highbury around 1969 or so. Long way to come from Vancouver! Thanks for the report
GSD – most of the action was at opposite end to us – so what you saw probably more accurate than what I thought I saw from the ‘south’ end.
I just want to say what an incredible experience it was in the Avenell Club. Wonderful food and drinks, and the staff were so friendly and efficient; I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the class of everything, etc. after all this is the Arsenal!
I highly recommend the hospitality offerings from the club. Expensive, for sure; but I knew my red membership wouldn’t get me the option of buying tickets for the Scousers game.
Now if only the referees were as classy and efficient as the Arsenal!