Premier League week 11
The clash of the weekend was opposing two rivals and title contenders, Arsenal and Liverpool. The end result 1-1 does not satisfy any of the two squad as both are vulnerable to Chelsea’s and Manchester City’s performances.
Milner opened up the game and was first on the scoreboard when Arsenal were having difficulties leaving too much space in between lines. But Lacazette rescued his team thanks to a brilliant strike. It was the fifth goal of the season for the Frenchman who kept Arsenal’s unbeaten run intact, now extended to 14 games.
Coach Emery, Arsenal, on the draw:
“I’m happy with our performance and I think today the balance in the 90 minutes is more balanced positively with the control against them, but it’s very difficult to not let them have chances also. We needed a little luck in some moments of the match and also we needed, when we were attacking, to find our goal.
It’s the reason that at the end, I think 1-1 is a good result for how we did in the 90 minutes after 1-0 when we are losing and it’s the reason we are happy 50 per cent. The second, maybe also we can lose in one moment and in the 90 minutes we could also have won in the balance of the 90 minutes.
The first thing is that the Premier League is the first competition for us because it is giving us the big regularity in the season. 38 matches. It’s very important when you play against City and Chelsea or against Liverpool.
If you win, it’s better, but a lot of matches are very important because three points is the same against Liverpool or against Crystal Palace. Today is one test, how we are against one team, after City, after Chelsea. Maybe today we were more near with our performance. But also, we need the regularity of every match and the next match against Wolverhampton here, is the same. Another important game.”
Coach Klopp, Liverpool, on conceding a late goal:
“It was intense, very intense. It is clear Arsenal are in a very good moment. We made life a bit too easy for them in the first half. Formation-wise I was not happy at how compact we were and stuff like that. When we had the ball it was good, we were a threat, we were in behind.
The start was like ‘Wow, Arsenal are there’ but then the first attack we had, everyone knew ‘OK, they are not too bad as well!’ It was then a pretty open game. That’s OK. Our set-pieces were outstanding and we should have scored from them. Virgil said immediately after the game he should have had a hat-trick, but he had not even one [goal].
That’s a shame. Second half we changed formation a bit and it helped us today. We scored a really nice goal, had super counter-attacks, played good football in a lot of moment. But – as they have done a few times already this year.
Arsenal brought pretty much all of their strikers [on]… I was actually waiting for Van Persie and Bergkamp! Because first half we were not compact enough. The three in midfield had to do too much and then the one time we don’t close the half-space. They play the ball through and could score the goal. It’s not nice, but of course a point at Arsenal will always be an absolutely good result. So we take it.
