It was the best of games, it was the worst of games.
Arsenal and Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at the Emirates Stadium must be what it’s like if Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp stayed up late one night to play each other at FIFA.
In a wild and wildly engrossing peak into the imaginations of two of the Premier League’s most attack-minded managers, the two teams went hammer and tongs in a concept I like to call crazyball.
Crazyball is essentially both teams going hell for leather, putting the foot on the accelerator and pressing down as hard as humanly possible. In the second-half at the Emirates, we got exactly that, two teams wholly embracing the craziness while affording just a fleeting thought to the disastrous consequences.
52': Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool
53': Arsenal 1-2 Liverpool
56': Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool
58': Arsenal 3-2 Liverpool
71': Arsenal 3-3 Liverpool#ArsLiv pic.twitter.com/pa9HoImiDR— UK Grime (@ukgrime) December 22, 2017
After a reasonably humdrum opening 20 minutes, Arsenal and Liverpool suddenly remembered who they were playing against. Philippe Coutinho’s cushioned header gave the visitors a slender advantage heading into the break, before crazyball came to the fore in a frenetic, breathless and exhausting second period.
Mohamed Salah scored to put Liverpool two up and, had it not been Liverpool, you would have said it was job done.
But it was Liverpool. This is the same set of players who surrendered a 3-0 lead against Sevilla, and who lost to Bournemouth having been 3-1 up. They also conceded five and four against Manchester City and Tottenham earlier this season.
Basically, you always have a glimmer of hope against Liverpool, and that was precisely the case here. Indeed, just 388 seconds elapsed between Salah doubling Liverpool’s lead and Mesut Ozil completing Arsenal’s comeback, making it 3-2 after Alexis Sanchez and Granit Xhaka had also sliced through the Reds’ flimsy backbone.
And that was the key takeaway from this game. As exhilarating as it was as a piece of Friday night entertainment, a pure, uncut hit of Premier League chaos, we were left with the reminder of why these sides are 17 and 18 points behind City at the halfway point of the season.
Most away PL goals conceded this season
21 – Stoke
21 – West Ham
20 – LIVERPOOL
19 – Huddersfield
17 – Everton#ARSLIV #PL— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 22, 2017
Because this was a different type of football altogether to Pep Guardiola’s frighteningly well-oiled winning machine. While City are ruthless, efficient and clinical across the pitch, Arsenal and Liverpool are sobering reminders of what can happen when you don’t have the defensive personnel required to succeed in this league.
It’s tough to know what to say really. The need to be thrilled is almost always met when Arsenal and Liverpool met. Their clashes are almost invariably a refreshing departure from the cautious, respectful war of attritions you’d usually anticipate from a meeting between two Premier League heavyweights, but they come at a price.
Simon Mignolet was once again berated for his failure to keep out Xhaka’s shot. The speed and ease with which Salah tore through Arsenal’s core for his goal, too, was worrying, while Joe Gomez failed to, at any point, spot Sanchez’s run which led to the Chilean’s header. 2-1 to Liverpool at that point, but then there was the Mignolet flap. 2-2. Then Mesut Ozil decided to show up, playing a neat give-and-go with Alexandre Lacazette before dinking it over Mignolet to give Arsenal the lead for the first time.
It was peak Liverpool. We were thrilled and absorbed, but the woeful sense of self-destruction also made us gawk in disbelief. Then Petr Cech decided to do his Mignolet impression, punching Roberto Firmino’s effort straight into the air, watching in despair as it dropped down and bounced over the line.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/944321859901935616
It was electrifying television, for sure, but it was also preposterous defending consider the stature of these two teams.
The worrying thing for Liverpool fans isn’t what happened, it’s that it keeps happening. Since Klopp took charge in 2015, Liverpool have lost 43 points from winning positions, more than any other team in Europe during that time. At the same time, he has spent €146million on Salah, Sadio Mane, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Georginio Wijnaldum, while only €19m on goalkeepers and defenders.
Compare that to Guardiola. The City boss recognised the weaknesses in his side last season and took appropriate action in the summer, bringing in a world-class goalkeeper in Ederson to replace the blundersome Claudio Bravo. He also shed his aging full-backs and signed Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo. The difference has been remarkable. Ederson has been outstanding, while Walker has been a model of consistency. Liverpool under Klopp lack that direction and focus.
As for Arsenal, well it was same old Arsenal. Cech will be 36 soon and is clearly no longer fit for purpose, while Wenger will be worried that Shkodran Mustafi was unable to introduce any control to the defence after replacing Nacho Monreal at half-time.
Liverpool beat Arsenal 4-3 at the Emirates 16 months ago in an eerily similar game of slick attacking and farcical defending. The fact that they produced basically the same pub league defending on Friday night is a damning barometer of their progress.
