Arsenal 4 - 1 Liverpool

If there was a time to play Liverpool, then today would have been it. Arsenal, with six straight wins behind them, players in form and a healthy squad were in the right condition to put a Liverpool side missing a key defender in Skrtel and attackers Lallana and Sturridge to the sword. At the Emirates, where Arsenal had only lost once in the league all season, it was more expectation than hope that we'd win.

Arsenal going in 3-0 up at half-time didn't tell the entire story of the first half. The first five minutes were brilliant from the home side as their energetic pressing forced Liverpool to concede possession in their own half and Arsenal should have scored during this period. Mignolet had to pull out a good stop to deny a Cazorla shot, while Ramsey spurned a one-on-one chance not long after. The game could have been won there and then.

But things shifted as the half went on. Liverpool settled and began to play more in our half, and the clever movements of their front free, plus the late runs from their wing-backs pulled our defence into awkward positions. All of a sudden it was us who were being sloppy with the ball and unable to really get anything going in their half. Liverpool should have scored when Markovic found space between our defenders and was one-on-one with Ospina, but he chose to square it to Sterling and got the pass wrong.

It felt like we were taking risks on the ball and with our shape. We tried to push the defensive line up the pitch to enable the high press, and that meant on occasion Sterling had space to run into. Ramsey playing on the right hand side, leaving Ozil as the ten ahead of Cazorla and Coquelin also seemed risky considering the number of intelligent and tricky players Liverpool had in midfield; you'd have thought Ramsey would have given us better protection playing centrally.

Liverpool, on the other hand, didn't look all assured at the back. Moreno's defending for Bellerin's goal was terrible as he just let his countryman breeze past him into a dangerous area. Ozil quickly added a second with an excellent free-kick. Then Alexis put us three up on the stroke of half-time, as we bypassed their midfield easily, got Ramsey into plenty of space in an advanced position, and he played in Alexis who was able to run at their defence and crack one in from the edge of the box.

After such a fantastic finish to the half, there was every desire to go and score more in the second. But this Arsenal team tends to shut up shop after two or three goals and so we dropped a bit deeper. Ramsey's injury forced Flamini on, and with Coquelin and Flamini in the centre we lost some of our control of the ball. Liverpool switched to a back four, with Can at right back, and gave us a few issues down the sides that, for the most part we coped well with.

Then Bellerin showed his inexperience by diving in on Sterling in the box to concede a penalty, and was probably lucky to not get a second yellow card as well. Henderson converted, though Ospina really should have saved it, and that made the next few minutes a bit nervy. If they had scored again, it could have been a very uncomfortable ending to the game.

As it was, Can scythed down Welbeck when the ball had gone, got his second yellow and all but killed whatever momentum Liverpool had mustered. Giroud added some luster to the scoreline with a fantastic finish. 4-1 the final score.

It's striking how differently this game may have gone Liverpool gone ahead in the first half. I won't claim this to be the best performance I've seen this season, because of some of the mistakes we made at the back, our difficulty in dealing with their shape at times and our loss of control of the ball in the second half.

However, all four of our goals were outstanding, and there were a number of top performances, no less from Ozil and Alexis. The former is my personal man of the match, while the latter channelled his energy in the right way and looked more of a threat than he has recently.

Special mention to Hector Bellerin, too, who, up until the penalty, was doing a very good job against Sterling. His rise to the first team and his current level of performance has been one of the highlights of this season.

This win means Liverpool are unlikely to challenge us for a top four spot, with the gap now nine points. With healthy distance between us and the chasing pack, top four is probably secure for another season. It'd take a spectacular *bleep* up to not finish in the top four now.

Seven straight wins now sees us second until Monday at least, and four points behind Chelsea. They will certainly beat Stoke later today, but any dropped points will make things interesting, especially with them to come to our place in three weeks time.

Great analysis

What an afternoon. I always thought we would win this, but to win so convincingly and dominantly. One of our best results of the season.

right from the start we looked threatening. Pressing, passing and the intent was all there. Should have probably scored but we missed the chances. Liverpool came back into the game and they could have then done a smash n grab but some of the last ditch defending bailed us out.

After that it was all us. 3 quality goals within 20 minutes and the match was basically done.

Coquelin was amazing in midfield. Ozil probably MOTM if not Coquelin. Sanchez, Giroud, Ramsey n Cazorla all showed their class. Bellerin is getting better with each game as the experience comes. Need to treat him properly and not burn him out. Thankfully Debuchy is back.

7 games to go, winning 4 of them will be enough for a top 4 but it would be great to keep this type of form up and try to go undefeated till the end. See where that takes us

Those goals...each one of them

Congratulations

Glad Debuchy is back to relieve Bellerin, as RG said, plus, seeing how well the Spaniard is playing should light a fire in his belly to win his starting spot back. Love having quality competition for places.

What a game! To be honest, I thought I might sleep in this morning (American time zones, etc.) because I've been exhausted lately. Maybe catch the last half hour or something. But something caused me to wake up and check the time on my phone literally one minute before kickoff. I'm glad I did!

I think I liked the Alexis goal the most. By a hair. All four were beautiful.

And when I looked at the table I started to have some more general thoughts about the season. There's nothing definite yet. But. Know what we haven't heard in a while?

"Oi, Wenger is tactically clueless, we can't beat top teams, we will always be scrambling for fourth place, Wenger doesn't change a bit, he is cheap and won't spend money, the kids aren't good enough, it is a FACT that we will drop outside the Champions League spots this season because we don't have ambition ... WENGER OUT!!!"

...

When everyone--understandably--put this season as a two-horse race between Chelsea and Man City, and when Man Utd invested hugely, with Southampton investing well and playing well, with Liverpool and maybe even Spurs aspiring realistically to CL spots ... it's truly remarkable that right now Arsenal are in 2nd place and have a very real shot and cementing that position. Truly remarkable.

The last two seasons have seen headaches, disappointments, mistakes. Yes. But they also represent clear and decisive steps forward. An FA Cup last season. Still potentially another one this season. Big signings in the upper echelons of the transfer market. Now, we're also defeating rivals in some of the big games, finally. I'm proud of the club and the players. Today was really a joy to watch.

That was a joy to watch, the score line could have been much more. The entire team was excellent but Ozil was top man today.

Sanchez goal.

I thought today Monreal played his best game, was almost perfect game, Gibbs really need to step up his game if he wants to compete with Monreal.

Fantastic win
really needed this type of result after some pts we had dropped at home earlier this season

we had previously shown we are capable of strong starts,forcing mistakes and creating chances worthy to take the lead

yet the worrying thing is if we dont make it count and opponent bypass initial wave of press we could be easy to play through and find ourselves in trouble

thankfully didnt get punished this time

Coquelin was great,really suited for this type of performances when we need someone cover across ground quickly
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2014/matches/755603/player-stats/56864/2_ATTACK_05#tabs-wrapper-anchor

the use of Ramsey wide was interesting but we lacked dynamism in Central midfield then and Cazorla had poor game

credit to Per,esp in 1st half dealt with sterling much better than thought in 1vs1s

great to see Mesut scoring in big game and Giroud keeping his scoring streak going

had to

Congratulations! Keep it up.

Starting to think, whenever GL gunners missed the game, we won >.<

Great game though, everyone did well and hopefully we could carry this form til the end of the season.

We were very good from the start. All the goals at me cheering loudly. Very good and enjoyable to see such a result.

Only just had time to get on the forums. What a fantastic result and a well deserved one, too.

It's incredible to think that if we beat Burnley, we will be in our best League form since the invincibles (March 2004)!