« on: October 9, 2022, 03:32:45 pm »
Arsenal vs Liverpool
16:30, Sunday 9th October
Emirates Stadium, London
Premier League
Referee: Michael Oliver
Liverpool travel to Premier League-leaders Arsenal this weekend, with both having enjoyed home victories in European competitions during the midweek. Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal finally look truly reborn, and have won nine of ten competitive matches this season (only a 3-1 defeat to away Manchester United spoiling a perfect opening couple of months). Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have stuttered thus far, displaying signs of a hangover from last season’s lofty ambitions whilst also trying to adapt to life after Sadio Mane – a figurehead of Klopp’s reign. The sides have only played three Premier League matches between them in the last month and there’s a sense that this match could be an important tone-setter for both, particular considering the relentless run between this weekend and the November & December break for the World Cup.
The sides last met back in March, with 4th-placed Arsenal trailing 2nd-placed Liverpool by 15 points – the Gunners’ two games in hand offering them the opportunity to put themselves in touching distance of 3rd-placed Chelsea. Arteta’s side had been on an excellent run of winter form, taking ten wins from twelve (losing only to Manchester City) in the run up to welcoming the Reds. Klopp’s side were also in fine form, arriving at the Emirates off the back of eight consecutive league wins. They’d return north with a ninth, courtesy of goals from Diogo Jota & Bobby Firmino and a 2-0 victory. Liverpool would go on to take seven wins and two draws from the remainder of the league season, falling heartbreakingly short of Man City at the end of the closing day. Arsenal were hit and miss during the run in, falling to five defeats from eleven – late defeats to Tottenham and Newcastle, in particular, proved particularly costly as they missed their top-four target by two points come the end of the season.
You’d imagine that the peak Arsene Wenger years felt like a distant memory to Arsenal supporters during 2021. Between 1997 & 2005, Arsenal won three league titles & four FA Cups, and finished in the top two of the Premier League in eight consecutive seasons – they then were denied a crowning achievement by Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League Final. The second half of Wenger’s reign saw Arsenal’s star fade, as – first – Chelsea and – later – Man City bankrolled their ways to success and ever-strong Liverpool & Spurs sides regularly posed a challenge to their Champions League qualification. Wenger’s final season in charge was only Arsenal’s second season outside of the Champions League since the Frenchman’s second campaign at the helm, though a late trio of FA Cup wins did offer a hit of something caught between nostalgia & success.
Following successful spells with Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain, Unai Emery was identified as Arsene Wenger’s successor as Arsenal manager. The Spaniard led Sevilla to a hat-trick of Europa League victories in 2014, ’15, & ’16 and achieved a domestic treble with PSG in 2018, therefore appearing a shrewd appointment for the North London club. But for a late season collapse, Emery’s first season at the Emirates appeared very respectable (Arsenal finished 5th, within two points of both Chelsea & Spurs, despite taking just four points from their final five games). How different things could have been. Unfortunately for Arsenal, that dismal spring set the tone for the autumn that followed – by late November 2019, Emery’s side had won just four league matches and languished 8th in the table. Freddie Ljungberg spent a short spell as caretaker manager following Emery’s dismissal, before fellow former Arsenal midfielder Mikel Arteta was offered the job-proper just prior to Christmas.
Also a former Everton midfielder and assistant to Pep Guardiola at Man City, Mikel Arteta would oversee a really difficult spell for Arsenal fans. 2019-20 continued in much the same way it had begun, with Arsenal ultimately finishing 8th, whilst a season like 2020-21 would have been unthinkably during the first half of Wenger’s reign – Arsenal were in & out of the top half for much of autumn & winter, and only managed another 8th-place finish despite ending the season with five consecutive victories. By any measure, Arteta was very lucky to still hold his position heading into September 2021, with Arsenal having lost their three opening matches of the campaign. It’s from that point around fourteen months ago, however, that Arteta’s Arsenal seem to have turned things around – they were in the top four at the halfway stage of the season and, given the way that the previous season had gone, could actually take heart from finishing just 2 points short of 4th-place Spurs come the end of the season.
Whichever way you slice the form table since the opening three games of last season (the 35 games that remained last season, the 42/43 games overall, or the opening 8 of this campaign), Arsenal appear to be in a healthy place. Arteta has overseen the maturing of some key young players in Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, and Gabriel Martinelli, whilst his reunions with former Man City colleagues Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko for 2022-23 have also appeared astute. Arsenal appear to be benefitting from a period of allowing defender William Saliba to cut his teeth Ligue 1, whilst – perhaps against all odds – one-time pariah and precursor to a yellow card, Granit Xhaka this season appears to have become the leader he’s often looked like he more should than could become. We’re clearly still at a very early stage in what will become a heavily disrupted 2022-23 season but Arsenal appear in as good a place as they have in – never mind recent years – a good fifteen years.
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Apologies for the late post this week, folks - busier couple of days than I'd been expecting earlier in the week (as well as forgetting that Arsenal were playing on Thursday, which I'll claim as something I was intentionally waiting for 
). Over to you all for build-up chat...
« Last Edit: October 9, 2022, 09:35:47 pm by John C »
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“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
“Generosity always pays off. Generosity in your effort, in your work, in your kindness, in the way you look after people and take care of people. In the long run, if you are generous with a heart, and with humanity, it always pays off.”
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