A real organised and determined second half display saw Liverpool held to just 1-1. Not many teams go to Anfield and get a 1-1 draw in 45 minutes, you know. It's something to take some confidence and belief from. It's an accomplishment for crying out loud.

Oh, we conceded four in the first half? Did that happen? I know some team got battered by Liverpool today but I'm sure it wasn't us. It must have been that other team that plays in yellow and blue. You know, the one that shows up every now and then and completely and inexplicable bends over in front of the opposition and asks to be sodomised. That team.

So, uh, how do we explain this one away? When we lost 8-2 at United, we knew we had a poor side out. When we lost 6-3 to City, we knew the team were exhausted and in need of a rest. When we lost 5-1 to Liverpool, we knew... well, we knew that we were a side in good form, with a couple of injuries but still able to put out a pretty darn good eleven, with a good record at Anfield and against Liverpool in recent times, with a chance to open up a five point gap, no matter how temporary, over the chasing packing. This experienced, tough Arsenal side, with a mean defence and new-found game-winning nous, should surely be able to go to a rival's stadium, put in a good performance and got a positive result.

For those first twenty minutes, Arsenal's performance was inexcusable. Liverpool seized the initiative from the very beginning and came flying at us, scoring a goal inside the first minute. Probably the worst start you could want in a game like this, but with 89 minutes left to play, the game was hardly over. So what do you do in that situation? Surely, it should be to dig in for a bit, ride out the storm and gain a foothold in the game from which you can then start to get an equaliser.

But Arsenal didn't do that. Conceding again from a set-piece, from the same player no less, is bad enough, but to then continue to push forward after that, pushing up midfielders in an attempt to control the ball in the opposition half, only to then lose it cheaply time and again before you even get that far, was a shockingly bad game plan. Liverpool had so much pace and quality in their attack that it would've been difficult to contain them with two banks of four and a solid shape, so what on earth possessed the Arsenal players to leave their defenders completely and totally exposed against that threat? "Oh, it's Mertesacker and Koscielny, they'll do something about it!" For *bleep*'s sake, you could have prime Baresi and Nesta back there and the result would have been the same. No defender can survive when swarmed by four or five players, much less players of the quality of Sturridge and Suarez.

4-0 down inside 20 minutes is just incredible. From Liverpool's view, it's probably the best they've played. They were fantastic; energetic, penetrative and ruthless.  From Arsenal's view, it was a horror show, unable to pass to a team mate, unable to defend, unable to even keep up.

And there is no excuse for it. If Arsenal were nervous going into the game, then that's a problem because they should be going into these games focused and confident from the first whistle. If Arsenal were jaded, again, that's no excuse because we've had a week to recover and prepare for this game; the same as Liverpool. If Arsenal were naive, then why the *bleep* are they playing that mindset when they've already been punished for it this season by Dortmund? Where did that start come from? Just what the hell happened out there?

These slow starts are a problem. It takes us a while to get into games. Often enough, we require the first goal to really start playing with confidence. In big games especially, we have a tendency to be nervous and I don't know why. We were ruthlessly punished for it today.

The second half was practically a non-event with the game already over. Liverpool scored a fifth, Arsenal scored a penalty, Ozil and Giroud were rested and that was about it.

The prevailing question now is: is there where we crumble? Understandably, there will be some concerns. There are no positives to be taken out of this game, and with the run of games coming up you worry that this result will be too big a blow to our confidence. The only saving grace is that, when we lost 6-3 at City, we recovered very well and put the result way behind us. We've recovered from a lot of setbacks this season, so we just have to do it again here. There's no time to feel sorry for ourselves.

And the thing is, this can be turned around so, so quickly. Beat United on Wednesday and the good mood is restored. Beat Liverpool in the FA Cup and suddenly you've got some momentum going again. It's easy to lose hope after a game like that, but there's every reason to continue believing in this team.

Stunned... right ?
we didnt expect anything anywhere near this with having never lost at Anfield for last 7 years and calling it our second home.. the scoreline could have been even worse, 7-0 or 8-0, if Liverpool took some of their chances and we werent gifted a penalty..

tbh, there is nothing much we could have done today.. when Sturridge, Suarez, Sterling, Coutinho and Gerrard were in unbeatable form.. as evident as from today we cant expect to restrict big teams to a 1-0 2-0 scoreline, however good our defense is.. you may have to outscore them.. this is exactly were Arsenals problem lies.. attack is blunt and one dimensional with no real threat and chance creation..

Liverpool certainly knew it.. came with a high line and intense pressing knowing that we dont have the pace and width to counter it.. it can be argued that it was sheer bad luck that we concede 2 set piece goals in 10 mins.. although our zonal marking was exploited for the second..

now, we are 2 down in 10 mins having conceded 2 goals only thrice in 24 games.. we were shocked and were all over.. credits to Liverpool that they were 'going for the kill' still pressing high and attacking instead of taking a breath away.. something we fail or are reluctant to do even against small teams..

TEAM...
it was probably a good starting line up.. bar Monreal who clearly doesnt have the quality to play against good PL teams.. idea of using Ox pace and directness from flanks looked good while Wilshere made a return to the line up..

DEFENSE...
the best defensive record in the PL.. but we didnt play to our strengths here.. having a very slow player like Metskr, you have to compensate for it.. you cant play a high line without the support of midfield which is what we ended doing, or simply the midfield failed.. their pace and movement was too much..
Fullbacks were really poor.. lost count of the number of balls played behind them which Kos and Met had to cover.. and Met being slow suffered too much.. Gibbs would have been surely better and Sagna failed today..
Arteta showed his weakness again against a very intense pressing side.. and Wilshere failed to support him.. Ramsey would have done better.. while wingers could have given more support..
Sczeny made some brilliant saves which prevented the scoreline from going into 2 digits..

THE PLAYERS CONSISTENTLY MISSING AGAINST GOOD TEAMS...
all our players except Wilshere and Ox were poor in attack.. Giroud, Cazorla, Ozil.. players can have poor matches.. but someone who plays well against poor teams and always goes missing against good teams, is never a great player.. Giroud and Cazorla have been like that since their time at Arsenal.. and Ozil hasnt shown anything to start for Arsenal after his first few months..
it is little things like Giroud not taking a shot on goal when he had a clear chance, someone trying a run at defenders (like Ox), making a run (which only Monreal makes) which should be really worrying..

SUBS..
made the game better.. can be argued that Liverpool eventually were tired and slowed their tempo.. but still we were able to play some fast passing football with Rosicky upfront instead of Ozil..
it was a surprise that Wilshere who was on an impending red was not subbed.. but he calmed and saw the game off which is really good..

overall.. that should prove that we need to show more than defensive resilience and churning results agaisnt small teams to be called title challengers...

Monreal should move back to spain, spineless twat. As for Ozil, let the turkish lesbian keep playing uninterested, keep on idiot.

we have no proper dm, and no striker

Venga cant defend startimg Monreal, its fvcking disgraceful.

Credits to liverpool for playing the way they did. I must say this has to be Arsenals worst performance after 8-2. There were many players to blame but that wouldnt do any good. Lets hope chelsea and city drops points too and lets hope our players can put this performance and concentrate on next fixtures.

I am worried about our Mentality against big teams, we tend to freeze and bottle it big time. Today was a big evidence of it, its like we sort of have a mental block when it comes to performing against big teams.

Could have used Ramsey today.

Anyway, as I said in the Live thread, we have to use this as motivation. We have to respond like we did after the Bayern defeat last year, becoming ruthless and professional, as opposed to how we might have responded a few years ago. Every team that has embarrassed us in these past 12 months is coming up against us before the end of the season, with three of them at home in the next week and a half, so it's the perfect time for revenge if the boys can sort their heads out and focus on what really matters.

This was embarrassing but we're so much better than that. I hope we can prove it.

Turned it off after 20min. Couldn't even stomach watching the rest of the game. That was a disgrace. They should all be ashamed to call themselves Arsenal players.

We have no energy, or desire. The players think that they'll pass the ball casually around all day and eventually they'll score. But this doesn't work against high pressing teams. Liverpool players, Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling, Henderson etc, you can always expect them to put in a shift and work their socks off closing down players and putting pressure on. Not our players though. They just coast around the pitch waiting for the ball. We couldn't pass through the midfield because our players didn't get open and as soon as we lost the ball in the midfield, Liverpool just swarmed to our goal since we have NO midfield protection. Arteta is NOT a DM and frankly isn't good enough for Arsenal. We had the exact same problem with Southampton and just because we beat a poor Crystal Palace team, think the problem is eradicated. Where is the coaching? Where is the tactics?

I was looking forward to this match all week and for them to put in a performance like that...it was a disgrace to all Arsenal fans...

Personally, I believe the major reason why we lost today is because we are not used to playing at that tempo.

Seriously. Just think about it. When was the last time we won a match playing with a fiery fast-paced tempo. When was the last time we actually played with a fast-tempo. Napoli 2-0 win at the Emirates?...

All these recent games we have won were all almost the same. A lacklustre first half, followed by a improved 2nd half which brought one or two goals. When was the last time we played a team off the park and won a match convincingly...

And now when Liverpool turn up with a high pressing, quick tempo, fast-paced game we absolutely suffer. Mind you, this isn't the first time this has happened this season. It was the same case at the Etihad in December and at Southampton a few games ago.

We just can't live with that. That's not the way we've been playing this season. We're used to a easy, moderate-paced game in which we have patience and take our time. The thing is we have had too much of that as of late, and now when a teams comes out all guns blazing against us we get raped in the space of 20 minutes.

That's a good point, and we can actually extend that to last season and the season before that as well. For a team that's so good at controlling possession, it really does not like the high pressure, high tempo approach.

Having control is essential to the way we play and the team just hates being forced out of that comfort zone. Our reaction to it seems mixed. Sometimes, we dig our heels in and slow things down again, but other times we just don't seem to respond at all, as if we're waiting for the opposition to tire out.

I mentioned this in another thread, but our approach works because a lot of teams aren't capable of wrestling the control away from us. But the bigger teams are capable of doing so and it's down to us to have a plan to counter that.

We lacked defensive midfielders to help the back four, Ozil doesn't track players and Arteta is an old man chasing around Coutinho, Sterling, Sturridge and Suarez. Actually didn't have the midfield work rate to compete with a team like liverpool.

These were the trends that stood out to me:

1. Sloppy passing, even in dangerous areas, from nearly everyone including players you don't expect it from, that put more pressure on us unnecessarily
2. Giroud singlehandedly breaking down everyone of our attacks when the ball was played forward. The guy just isn't good at holding onto the ball with his back to goal and his passing is hopelessly inconsistent. And yes he did have support, in particular from wilshere who left a big space in midfield for Liverpool to attack each time giroud lost the ball
3. Arteta being left on his own. I mean I don't understand why wilshere was moving so advanced, especially given how much giroud (amongst others) was giving the ball away. Arteta is the worst at defending space without a defensive partner, far too slow and immobile. I know wenger likes to give players freedom to find their own solutions but surely he must have figured that it wasn't working and should have instructed wilshere to at least hold his position more. We've been here before in this exact situation with Alex song, who low and behold suddenly turned more defensively responsible as soon as he left us.

Anyway, I'm tempted to criticize more players but when someone like ozil is giving the ball away like confetti something doesn't seem right. It reminded me to some degree of the performance against utd earlier this season when the team had flu

I missed the mindless scapegoating. Save the "player x cannot keep playing" shit.

It takes a collective team effort to blow this badly.

And the Liverpool fans were writing themselves off


Oh well, we're 2nd, one point ahead of City and behind Chelsea, we can either respond strongly as our next 5/6 games are at home or we can wallow in self-pity. Hoping for the former. COYG.

After watching the match, I am surprised it was not 8-0, 9-0 or 9-1. We looked awful a pub team. Poor tactical awareness, poor positioning, complete lack of team speed, lack of a quality striker, lack of quality wingers. We were short of quality to start the year, no reinforcements and injuries. I believe that our 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 wins have papered over the cracks that many have thought were there all year.

Liverpool did deserve the win and Wenger was out managed.

just resign Arshavin

Good write-up Jay
------------------

Well. What can I say? I was and still am genuinely shocked. I didn't expect that a million years. As already posted in this thread, nothing pointed towards such a scoreline.

I'll keep it short.

From the first few seconds when Mertesacker wasn't awake and allowed Suarez to nick in front of him, which led to the foul, we just weren't switched on.

1-0: Offside, but poor marking.
2-0: Koscielny poor marking.
3-0: Ozil loses ball stupidly.
4-0: Ozil loses ball stupidly.
5-0: Koscielny & Mertesacker caught out.

Obviously that is simplifying the goals dramatically, but it's the main reason.

It's Ozil's first season, but surely he is entitled to one big-game performance? And what of Giroud, Cazorla, Chamberlain, Wilshere today? Just nothing. Gibbs apparently not 100% fit just yet, but he has to come back in as soon as he's fit. Monreal not a first-teamer.

We must beat Man Utd. Simples.

Dont play Giroud and Ozil in big games and we should be fine. Really heart broken,

We have to respond well next game, I have a feeling it will be another embarrassing game. This has been coming, first halfs of games we dont do *bleep* all and any decent team would have put past 4 us.

We cant keep playing players who play shit every game.

We make teams way better than they are, watch Liverpool lose to fulham now and United score 5 against us.

Who's the person who said he was glad Flamini was suspended?

If he was on the pitch today, no f*cking way do we concede 5 goals

Seriously, people who prefer Arteta over Flamini as a defensive midfielder need to wake up and smell the bacon

Wilshere didn't really help him though.
Seems to me like Wilshere is not ready to accept a role that would mean cleaning up after an AM when he'd rather would like to be that AM himself.

Only Diaby and Arshivan would have helped today.  

Cant wait for the injured player we signed to come back, whatever his name is.

Kim Basinger, was it