Match Report: Arsenal v Liverpool

An highly entertaining but frustrating game lead to a goalless draw at the Emirates last night and saw Arsenal move in to ninth position in the league.

It was definitely a game of two halves as Liverpool dominated Arsenal straight from the starting whistle and without our only signing of the summer Cech Arsenal would have been 2 or 3 nil down by the time the first half came to a close.  Aaron Ramsey was incredibly unlucky to have a goal disallowed which could have been the turning point of the game.

The second half saw a massive improvement from Arsenal and they were able to achieve more fluidity throughout their passing and had some decent attempts on goal. The hike in energy was too much for Liverpool in the second half and they really started to tire with Arsenal pressing them.

The Good

Petr Cech finally looked like the goalkeeper we were all hoping for last night, he seemed very settled in his role and made some amazing saves as well as handling some dodgy mistakes from Callum Chambers. He really was the best player on the pitch last night and coped with various attempts from Benteke and Coutinho.

Despite the sloppy first half Gabriel picked up in the second half and looked a lot more comfortable in his role.  There was definite improvement in his blocking and he made some great attempts to keep the ball out of our box during the second half.

The Bad

We’ve known for some time that Giroud can’t cut the pace of our midfield leaving us short of that all important player in the goal box but he seems to have lost even more form over the summer and his conversion rate is getting worse with every game. Last night it became glaringly obvious that Thierry Henry is right, if Arsenal want to win the the league they won’t with Giroud.

The Frustrating

Just three games into the season and already Arsene Wenger has had to use the word “average” to describe the form from his team so far and I think majority of people would agree with him. Just weeks ago he said he was ready to “fight for the title” and if he is still planning to do that then he better be prepare for a hard fight. It’s so early in the season that form doesn’t seem like a major issue right now but do you think any top manager in the world aiming to win the league will be thinking that right now?