LONDON — It has been clear for some time that Arsenal are the best without-ball team in Europe. At their full compliment, the back four have an aura not seen in these parts since the back four. They love to defend and so do the six in front of them.
Maybe they love it too much. Arsenal play like a team that has a two-goal lead when the lead is only one. Sit deep, let the waves crash on us, what we have, we hold on to. More often than most, they hold on. Indeed, for the first 36 minutes of the second half, this battered backline, held together by whatever Mikel Arteta could rustle up on his substitutes’ bench, looked as if this might happen.
Then came a through ball that was judged to perfection by Trent Alexander-Arnold and the kind of controlled pass that Darwin Nunez only seems to play for Mohamed Salah. That was about it from Liverpool when it came to quality chances, even in the second half where territory and possession swung their way. It was all they needed to maintain their four-point lead over the Gunners.
There was some irony that Liverpool’s second equalizer came from a rare Arsenal strike. Had Gabriel Martinelli stayed on the edge of what would become a back six, they might have held on. But if the mistake hadn’t been made this week, there’s no reason to believe it wouldn’t have happened against Newcastle, Chelsea or Inter either. Arsenal are too good – even against the best opponents – to leave things to chance as much as when they have a one-goal lead.
There seems to be no end to the mitigating factors. Arsenal had come into this match without their press leader and creative hub in Martin Odegaard. And the two most attractive options to start at left back against Salah. And one of the best central defenders in the world. They lost another, while hardly anything had been played in the second half. From Gabriel and William Saliba to Ben White and Jakub Kiwior, flanked by their second-choice defensive midfielder (Thomas Partey) and an 18-year-old box-to-box midfielder that Arteta is training to become a left-back (Myles Lewis). -Skelly). It’s a clear show of support for this club that that backline held Salah et al to six shots worth less than half the expected goal.
Not for the first time this season you felt that luck might not be on Arsenal’s side. Ibrahima Konate was more than a little lucky that Stockley Park agreed with Anthony Taylor that he had received the ball on Martinelli’s fly. Liverpool might also have felt offended when they saw a free-kick given to them because Leandro Trossard kicked the ball in his own face, but that would certainly be mixed with the relief that Taylor saw a foul in one or both of the games which Kiwior and Kai Havertz won on the edge of the visitors’ box in the 90th minute. The ball was then poked home by Gabriel Jesus, who was shown a yellow card after the final whistle for his angry reaction to a corner that had been wrongly awarded as a goal kick.
Despite there being room for Arteta’s side to improve, you can’t blame him or anyone else for thinking this could be Arsenal: The Murphy’s Law Year. Arteta refused to comment on the incidents that did not go his way, and reserved his disappointment at his team’s inability to perform in the decisive moments.
“Without conceding anything, we actually gave away two goals,” said Arteta. “That’s the most frustrating part, and not being able to finish the game, especially when we looked at ourselves and two things we didn’t do in certain aspects.”
A backline anchored by William Saliba and Gabriel could be able to deliver 90 faultless minutes against the country’s best. It might simply be too much to ask of Kiwior and Lewis-Skelly, who both chased the ball as they had to chase Salah for Liverpool’s second equalizer. When Arsenal were down to the wire in defence, they didn’t keep Liverpool honest at the other end. A few better touches from Martinelli and that might have changed, but too often it was him and a few support runners trying to do it all themselves.
Frustration about what might have been done to them mixes with what they themselves have or have not done. As Bukayo Saka acknowledged after the match: “We feel like we didn’t show our best selves for the entire 90 minutes.” But for 45 that was really the case.
Their statement was a boastful assertion of their superiority over the league leaders. They were clearly superior to their opponents all over the field. Declan Rice, as good as he has been this season, and Mikel Merino had the muscularity to control the pitch, helped by Havertz and Leandro Trossard dropping deep. That created the space for Arsenal to isolate Liverpool’s full-backs. Barely ten minutes had been played before Andrew Robertson seemingly argued with Virgil van Dijk, his arms held out in frustration as if to ask what exactly he should do when Saka flew at him. When White made a pass over the top to isolate his number 7 with Robertson, the outcome seemed inevitable. Even at full strength, Saka would beat his man, get on his left foot and drill home.
Arsenal looked so far ahead. Even Virgil van Dijk’s equalizer did not deter them. The hosts seemed to understand that even that chance came from right-back Partey who did well to keep Luis Diaz out. Dominant in open play, stood over a dead ball. Rice stayed high in crosses begging for a touch. Mikel Merino had already diverted one wide before driving home just before the break.
Arne Slot was certainly impressed by what he saw.
‘They can position themselves, I think [Arteta] once said, 40 different setups. You draw up a game plan, you expect something, but you can’t tell your players 40 different options. You try to prepare them as best you can, but now they play with a false nine, they didn’t come in with a full back as often,” he said.
‘We were able to prepare [the team] slightly better at halftime than what we saw in the first half. We took some more risks. The most important thing was that we put more energy into it. We pressed them more aggressively from the start. I could see that we could also continue where they had to take some of their quality players away because they couldn’t continue. Maybe that helped us a little bit.”
Even before the substitution of Gabriel and Timber, however, Arsenal were dropping out, just as they did against Leicester, Tottenham and even Wolves. Maybe they were too tired to continue. Martinelli, for example, had run into the ground in support of his left back. Diaz and Salah had hardly done the same. Merino looked like a man who completed his first 90 minutes in five months. Two replacement windows were eaten when Gabriel and Timber could not continue.
In such circumstances, it’s hard to shake the human instinct to sit down, especially when you know you’re incredibly good at it. However, no one is good enough to make sitting back on a one-goal lead anything other than a major risk.