What an absolute disgrace of a performance. Liverpool within 20 mins of this game had already wrapped it up as a contest. I had maintained on this forum that our habit of starting games slowly and dozing through the first half believing we can rally and win it in the 2nd will unravel soon. It looked very much like Liverpool had caught hold of this aspect of our game and moved swiftly to capitalize. No sooner had the game began, we found ourselves under the cosh. Brendan Rogers's plan was obviously to take full advantage of that dozy first 15 mins Arsenal always seem to enjoy now in every game. What followed next was like watching a plane crash in slow-motion.
We conceded in 52seconds off a free-kick sent in by Gerrard and turned in by Martin Skertel (of all people). As if that wasn't bad enough the same player was left with all the time in the world to head in the 2nd from a corner unchallenged. 2-0 in barely 10 mins of play in a game of this magnitude probably had our players shell shocked but i'm sure the Liverpool players were over the moon with how well their tactics were working perfectly. It was sadly like Mancity all over again,we were compounding our predicament by showing terrible crisis management... giving away the ball stupidly in critical areas instead of keeping it tight and steadying the ship.
As far as individual performances go, no one stood out in that first half of horror. Our midfield looked off the pace and perhaps only Wilshere could come out with some credit. Mesut Ozil, who has been struggling for form lately failed to keep the basic law of footballers who are off-form.. which is '' When you see that you are not playing well, for goodness sake just keep it simple'' Alas he chose to do the opposite by trying to be too cute with the ball in the middle of the park, he tripped himself over and lost the ball. The result of that abysmal play from a man who is so much better than what he is offering right now was for Liverpool to make it 3-0 via Raheem Sterling (we somehow managed to make him look like Messi today). At this point, if i were the manager, i'd have taken Ozil off immediately. He was stinking the place out. He was involved yet again for all the wrong reasons for Liverpool's 4th when it came. A wayward pass in the opposition half was intercepted,and in a matter of seconds Coutinho was playing Sturridge in for goal number four! Sheer madness..
The half time whistle was a massive relief to many Arsenal fans ears, such was the painful nature of that first half. The boss acknowledged our wretchedness too by saying he wanted to take off almost everyone at the break. 4-0 at half time is nowhere to be for a title challenger, and though the game was over as a contest, Wenger must have told them to go out there and redeem their collective prides as professionals because what they had dished out thus far wasn't good enough.
The 2nd half saw us stem the bleeding, but still there was still time for Liverpool to make it 5-0 via Sterling who was spotted by Toure at the half way line and put through, to finish past Szczesny. Szcz cannot be blamed as he was left exposed yet again by our disappointing defense whom prior to this game had earned plaudits across the division for their solidity. Suarez who had been involved in our torment all game, nearly scored a blistering freekick in the 62nd min after hoodwinking everyone to think he was delivering a cross. Thankfully Szczesny was alert and palmed the ball away for a corner. It was difficult to see where an Arsenal goal would come from but we got one. Gerrard who had been hauling his old butt into meaty challenges all game slid in late on Chamberlain on 68mins in the box and Arteta stroked the ball past Mignolet via a penalty. (cue ironic jeers from the home crowd). The rest of the game from an Arsenal point of view was errr....zzzzzzzzz.
So we where thoroughly and deservedly thrashed, no excuses no mitigations. Credit to Liverpool who smelt blood all through the game and went for the Jugular. They now sit 6 points off the top and are right back in the thick of things themselves. This is a good thing, as they still have City and Chelsea to play at home, as well as United Away. They could yet have a massive influence in this title race in the current form they are in. For us we simply have to commit this game to the scrap bin and move on. I'd advocate for one of those flash thingys Will Smith uses in Men in Black to wipe the memories of peeps who see Aliens. We thankfully have a chance to make amends on Wednesday, when we welcome the fallen giants Man united with RVP in tow. That game has now evolved into a must win, as failure to respond to this debacle with a win will sow seeds of doubts everywhere about our title credentials. We lie 2nd on the table after Chelsea capitalized on our slip by dispatching the hapless Newcastle. Mancity who were favorites to go top were held by Norwich in what seems a mini slump for them. Its still in our hands at the moment but big games lie ahead in this month and so we really can't look too far ahead of ourselves. A response on Wednesday is demanded from the boys.. anything short of a win against United will be underwhelming for everyone related to this great club.
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