Liverpool put their recent troubles behind them, showing touches of their best early-season from as they overcame Arsenal 3-1 and moved into third place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Here are three big talking points from the game.
Liverpool still need to improve
In these high-intensity, all-guns-blazing, madcap, super-fast 90 minutes - yes, the Premier League is one fine spectacle - Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool were reborn. In the last 18-months, Klopp had been the hipster’s choice - the perma-tense coach with his ADHD touchline histrionics, quirky press conference jokes and otherworldly conception of ‘Gegenpressing’ - the world alone is helluva cool.
But in 2017, with the ‘scalp’ of Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup and a lone win against Tottenham Hotspur in the league, Liverpool’s hysterical pre-Christmas game had deserted north England. They were in a crisis so paralyzing that they even refused to pester the struggling, defending champions Leicester City for their deplorable sacking of Claudio Ranieri.
Yet against Arsenal, Liverpool witnessed a footballing resurrection. All the ingredients of Liverpool’s prime game were present: the flying directness, the collective work, the attacking prowess, the neat combinations - and, on the touchline, a grinning Jurgen Klopp. They had tenacity. In the first half Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane dealt out knockout blows from which Arsenal never recovered. The 3-1 victory was a rousing statement of intent from Liverpool in the dogfight for a Champions League ticket.
Two big question marks, however, remain: firstly, at times, Liverpool’s defending was still shambolic. Klopp must make that a relic if Liverpool are to attain the required level of composure to push on in the final stretch of the season. They dropped in the second half and lost focus, a capital sin in a league of marginal differences and unforgiving opposition.
Secondly, Arsenal facilitated a rampant Liverpool, offering space as the Londoners tried to pour forward - but can Klopp’s team replicate their form against teams - often the lesser clubs - who sit back? That has often proven to be problematic.
What next for Arsenal and Wenger?
The capitulation was almost ordained. Danny Welbeck’s goal offered a flicker of resistance and resurgence before Arsenal conceded a morale-shattering injury goal from Georginio Wijnaldum. The result was a microcosm of a mirth of problems. This was Groundhog Day Deja Vu 2.0 after Arsenal’s pitiful defeats at Chelsea and Bayern Munich. Those were among the poorest 90 minutes that Arsenal have offered in the Wengerian era.
Against Liverpool, the London club’s manifold fallibilities were exposed again - elementary defensive mistakes, tactical ineptness and a distinct lack of leadership, all of the arguments that the howling what-have-you-done-for-us-in-the-last-decade mob have repetitively hurled at Arsene Wenger as they demand for his well-coifed head.
The pummeling that Arsenal took was yet again marked by an absence of competitiveness. This was Arsenal at their most tepid, with Wenger clutching his face several times. Has the Frenchman, with all the existential angst surrounding Arsenal, and after an introspective journey, come to the conclusion that Arsenal must do without his services? Arsenal were inanimate, perhaps a reflection of their coach’s soulless existence in the last few weeks.
After the full-time whistle Wenger was asked - ‘Is that it?’ Indeed, was this last installment of serial failure and disillusion one too many? ’That is always it,” responded the Frenchman. Wenger is the last autocrat among coaches. He has a Ferguson-esque autonomy within the club, so much so that Wenger can almost give Ivan Gazidis the hairdryer treatment. So, for now, his future plans are unknown, though Wenger, in the next few days, will want to avoid Bayern Munich dropping another five goals on his team.
The Alexis Sanchez gamble backfired
Why did Wenger decide to bench his best player in a crunch game? The Arsenal coach wanted his team to be direct, straight from the kick-off, but that plan, with Firmino’s opening goal as early as the 9th minute, quickly fizzled out. Dropping Sanchez also backfired.
Arsenal were never direct. They didn’t hoick the ball long. Liverpool’s central pairing Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan easily contained Oliver Giroud. Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain barely troubled Liverpool’s makeshift full-back James Milner. The London club allowed Liverpool far too much space, and Klopp’s XI, in a repeat of their thumping 2-0 win against Tottenham, exploited that freedom.
After a disastrous 45 minutes, Wenger had little choice but to acknowledge his own tactical mistake and bring on the Chilean. The diminutive player sparked a mini-renaissance for Arsenal. He gave Arsenal a purpose. Matip and Klavan struggled with his mobility, his guile and all-round play.
But not even Sanchez could resist the self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat. The high-energy Chilean did not want to accept his fate, but Arsenal unravelled, as Arsenal tend to do. He suffocated in a quagmire of satirical football.