1. Joy since ten year's time when Titi took us to our last victory. Was it Arsene raging against the fading of the light, Arsenal not bothered or what had Kenny done to keep us playing til the end? A case of Gunners giving up or Us til the end of the road?There’s a phrase in football - “Play the way you’re facing”. It’s been shouted at me a million times, usually as I’m about to do something foolish, and I think it’s relevant here. The point of “playing the way you’re facing”, is to keep things simple. Don’t take an unnecessary risk. Bide your time.
For me, this is exactly what Kenny did on Saturday. Everything that he did wrong against Sunderland was rectified at the Emirates. This time, Kenny kept it simple. He played a highly mobile and combative midfield, leaving Andy Carroll to plough the lone furrow up front, and essentially told a weakened Arsenal team to do their worst, knowing that his own squad had the depth, quality and variety to deal with virtually any scenario. With all the problems Arsenal have had, they simply didn’t have enough to damage Liverpool and it was only the highly pumped Frimpong and outstanding Vermaelen that kept Liverpool at bay. Within the first 15 minutes, Kenny’s vision had become even clearer. With Koscielny injured, his opponents were weakened further and clearly there for the taking, yet still Liverpool were patient. He would also have noted how Frimpong was a red card waiting to happen and that it was only a matter of time before the highly charged debutant went too far and earned himself an early bath, but still he waited for that moment to capitalise.
Carroll was unlucky not to score in the first half, Henderson should surely have done better after some great work by Kuyt, and there were signs enough that in Downing, Carroll, Henderson and Adam, we had enough in the locker to get the first goal, we just had to keep it simple. Frimpong being sent off was the catalyst for that extra push however. On came Raul and Suarez for Carroll and Meireles and the space vacated by the banished midfielder was cruelly exposed with neither Nasri, Ramsey or Lansbury having the will to do Frimpong’s dirty work. As someone said previously, it wasn’t pretty at times, it wasn’t picture book stuff, but it was effective, tactically correct and in the end, highly successful. Kenny got it bang on, and this still with a team of players yet to gel. 3 points at the Emirates against ANY Arsenal side is excellent. And four points from two games against traditional bogey teams is a very welcome beginning to the season.
2. What differences between this and the Sunderland game did you see?Clearly a more cohesive performance from the entire team. Downing bristled with confidence, Enrique came out of his shell more, Adam seemed more at ease with the shirt, Lucas was his old self, and even Henderson improved. As others have said, Kelly made a massive difference. He offers that little bit more than Flanagan at this stage and seems a more composed option at RB. He always stays on his feet and has the physical strength and presence of mind to go up against his attacker. His positional play was also excellent. Forget the shot against the post or the stand off with Sagna, there was one bit of skill in the second half where he flicked a dangerous loose ball over the head of an Arsenal player, then clipped it left footed through another two Arsenal defenders to the feet of Dirk Kuyt. The lads screams of class and it’s no surprise to see him being touted as an England international.
3. Anyone starting to stand out amongst the new or old?Of the new signings, the players who have stood out the most have to be Jose Enrique and Stewart Downing. Given that both are proven Premiership players, we were entitled to expect a certain level of quality from them, yet the fact that they’ve come into the team and settled immediately is still noteworthy. Downing looks like everything we wanted, and to coin a Fat Sam phrase, if he had a fancy foreign name we’d all be fawning over him. I fully expect him to be a key player this season.
I thought Adam played an exciting, disciplined role as well and showed what he’s capable of. Never mind the lob attempt or the poor free kicks (although one was unbelievable and took an incredible defensive header to clear), his general play and passing was good and his partnership with Lucas is clearly developing. Agger again showed why he is so crucial to us,
I would like however to pay a special mention to the much maligned Andy Carroll. I thought he did well against Arsenal in a difficult role, and but for one top save and one shit pass from Adam (where he still managed to set up Kelly), could have had a brace. This on top of a perfectly good goal last week wrongly ruled out by a twat of a linesman. As AL555 wrote in the Carroll thread, if he continues to improve and we can vary our play through him and around him, we will truly be an awesome attacking force. There were signs on Saturday that we are starting to do that, none more so than Carra keeping it on the deck despite many an opportunity to launch it at Carroll’s head. I don’t think his first goals of the season are far away, and having seen how Bolton defended crosses against Man City yesterday, our next game at Anfield against them could be tailor made for his capabilities.
Modified to add:-
And as a note to ensure Hinesy's mass debate is kept going I'll discuss the current relevant point, which is how different we looked when Raul and Suarez came on. Funnily enough, Hansen made the point on MOTD as Corkboy does here.
One or two posters have mentioned that Arsenal weren't up to much and indeed that was the main story in the meedja, Arsenal imploding, rather than a good performance by us. I just want to highlight one performance, that of Samir Nasri. He may have looked good on the ball, at times, but our second goal was all about him.
Firstly, the ball broke from the right hand side and Lucas and Nasri were close together by the right touchline. Now, there was no Frimpong, so when the ball broke into the Frimpong sized hole, Lucas was closer to it by about a yard from Nasri. So Nasri didn't bother moving his arse after Lucas but instead gently jogged over in Raul's direction.
Lucas gets the ball and drives straight at the Arsenal back four. Suarez was buzzing with intent and took two defenders with him, leaving a gap on the right for Lucas to pass into but to who? Well, if you recall, Raul Meireles was loitering over that side and he, too, drove into the box. Fortunately for him, Nasri decided not to bother chasing him either. So we had Nasri giving up on Lucas, who then passed to Raul, who Nasri had also given up on. I don't think I've ever seen that before, one player failing to pick up his man, twice, with two different opponents, in the same goal conceding move. That takes effort, or rather real lack of effort. Take a bow, Samir.
It wasn't that just about Suarez and Raul offering something different to Andy and Dirk, it was just as much about the massive amount of space that opened up in an absolutely KEY position after Frimpong got sent off. Suddenly, our midfield and attack were running directly at their defence and they had noone tracking back to cover.
For me, each factor surrounding the sending off contributed in virtually equal measure.
1 - Defensive midfielder off with no adequate cover
2 - Arsenal down to 10 men
3 - Suarez and Raul on
Who thinks we'd have scored anyway if
a) Suarez and Raul came on at some point regardless of the sending off
b) Frimpong wasn't sent off but Carroll and Dirk stayed on
