Match Preview – Arsenal v LIVERPOOL
Date – February 4 2024
Kick Off – 16.30 pm
Venue – Emirates
TV – Sky Sports
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Anon and Gary Beswick
Fourth official: Craig Pawson
VAR: David ‘Baldy’ Coote. Assistant VAR: Tim ‘Porno’ Wood.
They’ll be wary of us. They’ll be a little scared. They should be. We are hitting a frequency that we’ve not reached since the 2021-22 season. Goals are coming from all positions and via all angles, the counter-press is fully operational again, there are options everywhere. And, in large part because of Darwin Nunez, there is a strange demonic energy to our attacks that hasn’t been in evidence since the salad days of the Sadio-Bobby-Mo marriage. Last night’s demolition of Chelsea was wild west stuff - except it wasn’t because we had all the guns. If Darwin can re-adjust his telescopic sights a fraction over the next few days then Arsenal should be in for a stressful afternoon.
Arsenal will be harder than Chelsea of course. For one thing they have a midfield where Chelsea had a mere pay-check. It’s a very good midfield too. Odegaard continues to be their stand-out performer. The higher up the pitch he gets, the more ingenious he appears to become. If you allow him to touch the ball inside your penalty area then it’s possibly already too late. The recent evidence suggests that Saka might have found his shooting boots again. And although Jesus retains a preference for hitting the floor not the goal he can present a menace too. Rice may not have reached his West Ham level yet, but he's not at Hackney Marshes level which is where Caicedo was last night. So it will be tougher.
Not that they don’t have weak spots, which the Reds will have to probe. Gabriel and Saliba get a lot of plaudits but neither player particularly welcomes the physical side of the game. See how Saliba pinged off Awoniyi on Tuesday night just before the Forest goal. If Virgil ever does that we’ll know it’s time to put him out to pasture. Gabriel, if anything, has been even softer this season, often falling down and hoping for refereeing mercy rather than engaging in a tussle with the man he's supposed to be marking. There’s a strong case for Liverpool playing the same front three again, since all three present the type of physicality that the Arsenal defence least enjoys. And of course Jota the piranha, in particular, tends to go on a feeding frenzy at the Emirates. The sight of him crashing through Chelsea's defence will have sent some tremors through the Arsenal camp.
That is the style of direct play they have problems with.
We need to watch their set-pieces. They think hard about them and it shows. Oddly this is one area where we seem old-fashioned. The pioneers of the clever throw-in still rely on the antique method of finding ‘the Big Man’s head’ when it comes to free kicks, whereas Arsenal rely on surprise and genuine co-ordination. On the Arsenal thread Al tells me that these free kicks must take months to master and that precious training time is therefore consumed in creating patterns that haven't been since spirograph (ask your great grandads). This is bullshit. All the hard work is done in the head by a single individual. He can be having a bath while he does it. Applying the idea is relatively simple. We should start ourselves. Man City did last night, and scored.
I have a feeling we might see both Trent and Conor Bradley start this game. Bradley has become, in the parlance, “undroppable” after four astonishing performances at right back. Plus he had Martinelli in his pocket for the last 20 minutes of the recent FA Cup tie at their place. But nor can Trent be ignored forever. Is this the game we see him start in an orthodox midfield role? It would require some serious teasing of Klopp’s normal formation I think since Jurgen would be unlikely to use Trent as a number 8. But could he take up a position alongside, or slightly in advance of, Mac Allister as a right half? It was from a conventional right half position that Trent pulled so many strings in our previous two encounters with Arsenal this season. One thing’s for sure, Arsenal will be mightily relieved to see a bench with Alexander-Arnold on it. I can't imagine that Klopp wants to give them that comfort.
The match officials? I hate talking about this and maybe after last night’s incredible ‘homer’ by Tierney we are seeing the tables beginning to turn. But it is still somewhat surprising to see that Coote has been given the job of fucking-up on VAR, something he did so completely in the home fixture in December that even Howard Webb felt obliged to chastise him afterwards for failing to spot Odegaard playing basketball in the penalty box.
Finally, I’d like to show you this. During the first Covid lockdown when football completely disappeared for a while I played a game of ‘Mutual Appreciation’ with my great pal Jeff, a Gooner. We had to send each other five reasons why we admired our respective football teams. Call it an exercise in humility. His final missive was about Jurgen Klopp and in the light of the bombshell that is still exploding around all our ears I thought you all might appreciate his concluding paragraph:
“And lastly …says Jeff….”it feels like Klopp at times transcends football as a game that’s played week-in / week-out. He does things or says things that are for all of society, speaking about politics, Brexit, Coronavirus. His charisma, along with his team's success means that his voice is heard outside of the game and makes him a cultural figure. He’s an admirable man, we are all lucky have to have him in the PL and in the UK.”
We are lucky to have him.
All of us.
Even the ones whose team he punishes. Let's punish them.
Come on You Mighty Reds.
