Premier League matchday 27: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
Arsenal lost the games matches against Liverpool, the first time since the early 2000’s. More importantly, Arsenal lost again away from home and can be a rival against the best teams in England. Miserably, the players did not show up in the first half being quickly in a 2-0 hole. Premier League title is out of reach, Champions League campaign is likeky to be over after the rout in Munich (5-1) and the team might not even play the Champions League next season (ranks 5th now). With three losses in their last four games, where is the club going?
Coach Wenger is likely to leave the club at the end of the season, honestly he should. It is time for a new era. We hear from him after the no-show at Anfield:
“I felt in the first half we suffered from a lack of rhythm and competition, which I thought would happen. But it was a game of two halves. In the second half we responded very well and could have come back to 2-2. I felt we were a bit unlucky and a bit unlucky with some decisions as well. So overall, that’s what the game was today.
I just think that I have no special regrets. My regret is to have lost the game and especially in the first half, for the first goal we conceded from a direct kick from their goalkeeper. The fact that we lacked pace in our first half was down to, in my opinion, the fact that we had a lack of competition.
With the three points we would have still been in the chase for the title, but now I think we are too far away. I don’t think Chelsea will lose so many points, so now we need to concentrate on finishing as high as possible and qualifying for the Champions League.”
On the other side, Liverpool is having a resurgence after going through a tough stretch in early 2017. Coach Klopp comments:
“First of all, we were absolutely spot-on from the first second in the game. We played a wonderful first half. It was clear it would be a very intense game, you could see it already with the line-up of Arsenal; OK, Mesut Ozil was not in, [Alexis] Sanchez was not in, but pretty much the rest… It was clear we needed to have an eye on the counter attacks and all that stuff. Both teams tried to play high pressure – that was the reason for a lot of long balls, which made sense.
But after winning the second ball, both teams tried to play football. Especially in the first half, we did better. We played really good, created wonderful chances and scored only two times, and could have scored more in the first half. The performance tonight should not be a surprise because the boys have played already a few times like this.”
