Arsenal are no bottlers as we become only top 4 team to take points at Anfield

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Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City
Liverpool 2-1 Newcastle
Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United
Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal

Yes, to go 2-nil up at Anfield only to be pegged back to 2-2, conceeding in the 87th minute does feel like a defeat. But in the cold light of day, with the alcohol out of my system, I think it is a point gained.

After our draw to Liverpool, pundits and opposing fans have come together to claim that “Arsenal bottled the league at Anfield”.

Liverpool had the others in the top 4 at home this season – Manchester City, Newcastle and Manchester United. We were the only team to take a point off them and were so, so close to taking all 3.

So if we bottled the league by drawing at Anfield, what have City done losing there? And have Newcastle and Manchester United bottled top 4 by also losing? No. “Bottlers” is something that the press and opposing fans have been desperate to label Arsenal as.

I have written numerous times that in my book, Manchester City are favourites. No-one had us down as title challengers before the season begun. so I am not sure how we are now bottlers when we are battling for a title that no one expected us to be challenging for?

Yes, 8 points clear with 9 games to go looked a huge gap, but it really was not.

If we do not win the league, and in the run in only drop points to Liverpool and Manchester City, have we bottled it? If that scenario happens, it will be a run of 16 games, 14 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. The draw happening at Anfield and the defeat away to Manchester City.

I am not sure how a team can be labelled as bottling the league due to failing to win at Liverpool or Manchester City – two of the best teams in Europe of the last decade.

It also seems to have been forgotten that we are still 6 points clear. The title is in our hands. The equation has not changed – win every game and we are champions.

So those outlets saying that Sunday was the end of our title challenge? I am not sure how they have worked that out.

With West Ham and Southampton up next, we are gauranteed being above City when we face them at the Etihad. That is 6 games to go.

I am sure that at the beginning of the season, we all would have taken being top of the league going into that City fixture.

The fact we are disappointed with just a point at Liverpool shows how far we have come this season.

We have taken 4 points from 6 this season against Liverpool. In our last 12 league games against them, we had only taken 5 points!

Anfield is a place we had not won at in the league since 2012. and not done the home and away double since 2009. It was always going to be a tough game.

Liverpool might be 8th, but that is more to do with their form against lesser teams. As mentioned above, they have won 3 out of 4 at home to those sides in the top 4. And they have only lost once at home all season.

If we go and finish 2nd in the league, on goal difference, behind Manchester City. Or even 3 points behind if we do not get the win at Newcastle, then no one can say we bottled the league. It will mean dropped points at Anfield, Etihad and St James Park.

Remember: Newcastle beat Manchester United and drew with Manchester City at home.

It will be the Everton away defeat followed up by the draw at home to Brentford that costs us. But even then, we get 90+ points and finish 2nd, I do not think we can have any complaints.

We are not Tottenham. They have the Spursy tag because of how often they miss it up, and how little they win. We have the 3rd most titles, the most FA Cups. Certainly not the silverware you would associate with a club that “has a history of bottling it” as some media are making out.

So we dust ourselves down and go again next weekend. West Ham away. and that is followed up by Southampton at home.

Win both and we will be at least 9 points clear of Manchester City going into the game against them (although they will then have 2 games in hand).

Stick with it guys. Winning a league title is not easy.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Liverpool 2 – 2 Arsenal

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Liverpool (1) 2 Arsenal (2) 2

Premier League

Anfield Stadium, Anfield Road, Anfield, Liverpool L4 0TH

Sunday, 9th April 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Matt Turner, Reuell Walters.

Scorers: Gabriel Martinelli (8 mins), Gabriel Jesus (28 mins)

Yellow Cards: Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 41% 

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis, Scott Ledger

Fourth Official: Craig Pawson

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR Adam Nunnanfield

Attendance: circa 54,000

We are back again at Anfield, the place of one of our most famous victories back in 1989, of course. This time, although it is not a decider as such, it is still a most important date in our fixtures calendar, and a victory today will be a huge boost on our final run-in to claim the Premiership title at the end of May. As is the case with our encounters over the years, no quarter will be given nor taken, and we are under no illusions that it will be an extremely tough ninety minutes here on Merseyside this Easter Sunday afternoon.

We started the match quickly and with a good attitude too, as we took the game to the home side in the opening exchanges here at Anfield. Despite some early pressure from Liverpool, it was us who took the lead after just eighttminutes, when Bukayo Saka hit a ball into space and found Martin Ødegaard, who slipped it through the middle and as it bounced off Virgil van Dijk, it fell into the path of Gabriel Martinelli, who merely poked the ball past the Liver pool goalie. A great start! The goal certainly gave us the confidence that we needed, as we came at them again, looking for another goal; just four minutes later, Oleksandr Zinchenko took a shot that was heading for the far corner of the net, but Alisson pushed it away for a corner. Gabriel Jesus then switched the ball across to Bukayo Saka in a clever movement; he slipped in a cross to the back post and Gabriel Jesus, following his run, sliced the ball over the crossbar from an extremely tight angle indeed. The home side tried to catch us on the break, but as Mo Salah cut in in from the right, he played the ball straight to Rob Holding, who neutralised the danger. Liverpool started to take the game to us, as they had a good chance to equalise from the right foot of Andy Robertson, but thankfully, he whacked it wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s goal. Ben White received the first yellow card of the day, when he tackled Diogo Jota rather clumsily, and a couple of minutes later, Gabriel Jesus grabbed our second goal of the game, when Gabriel Martinelli curled the ball in perfectly for him, beating Andy Robertson to it, heading in our second goal of the game, and before even so much as half an hour of the match has passed! We look confident, and a couple of minutes after the second goal, Virgil van Dijk was easily beaten by Gabriel Jesus and he cynically brought him down, earning himself a justified yellow card. The home side then got a little close to scoring when a Mo Salah effort went wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s goal, and then Gabriel Jesus went down from a challenge from Diogo Jota near the corner and we were awarded a free-kick, which went nowhere. Cleverly, Ben White correctly read a weak pass from Andy Robertson to earn possession back for Arsenal in Liverpool’s half, and we came forward again, hunting for a precious third goal before half time. However, it was the home side that got a goal through Mo Salah from close range. This gave the home side confidence, and as the match edged towards half time, it was Liverpool who looked on the ascendancy now. During injury time, the home side got a free-kick when Mo Salah was fouled, but thankfully, Jordan Henderson fired it over the bar, so we went into the break leading Liverpool by two goals to one.

We tried to catch them cold at the beginning of the second half, with a superb shot by Oleksandr Zinchenko, in which his left footed shot from outside the penalty area was blocked, and then the home side applied a lot of pressure on us in order to try to score. Less than ten minutes after the restart, Rob Holding brought down Diogo Jota in our penalty area and thus a penalty was awarded to the home side, during which Aaron Ramsdale was booked. Our hearts were in our mouths, but fortunately Mo Salah took a poor penalty and missed the target completely. However, this miss merely served to fire up Liverpool more and they continued to pressurise us in order to search for an equaliser. There was a delay when Gabriel was attended to by our medical staff over an injury, and when play was resumed, both sides tried exceptionlly hard to break each other’s defences down, but nobody was budging at all. With sixteen minutes of the match remaining. Bukayo Saka slotted the ball to Martin Ødegaard, whose left-footed shot from outside the penalty area was saved by Alisson as the ball was heading for the bottom left corner of the net. Mikel Arteta made a double subsitution with ten minutes of the game remaining with Leandro Trossard and Jakub Kiwior replacing Gabriel Jesus and Martin Ødegaard (who passed the captain’s armband to Granit Xhaka). The home side sensed that the match was in its final stages, and during this short period of immense pressure, Bukayo Saka received a yellow card for a clumsy foul. In the eighty-fifth minute, Bukayo Saka put an excellent cross into the Liverpool penalty area, and Gabriel Magalhães met it; it was a superb header from the centre of the penalty area, which was saved in the centre of the goal by Alisson. However, just two minutes later, Liverpool grabbed an equaliser when Roberto Firmino’s header finally beat Aaron Ramsdale from close range. Almost immediately, Kieran Tierney replaced Oleksandr Zinchenko, and a little time later, Gabriel Martinelli passed the ball to Kieran Tierney, whose left-footed shot flashed by Alisson’s right-hand post. So close. Although both sides had their chances to grab a late winner, the score remained the same with honours even.

Overall, we did enough to come away with the full three points, particularly after the first half performance, in which the home side were completely outplayed. In the second half, Aaron Ramsdale was truly magnificent between the sticks, keeping out shot after shot, frustrating the Liverpool strikers throughout. Even in injury time, when he surely kept the best for last with a flying fingertip save from Salah’s deflected curling effort, before somehow keeping out Ibrahima Konate’s attempt to bundle home the winner from practically on the goal-line with only seconds of the match remaining. This draw at Anfield this afternoon leaves us six points ahead of Manchester City, who have a game in hand over us at this stage of the season. We surely cannot afford any more slip ups, and although we came away with a point today, it truly could have been a lot worse. Keep going, chaps.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: West Ham United at the London Stadium on Sunday, 16th April at 2.00pm(Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon

FA Youth Cup Final to “be scheduled before Saturday 29 April”

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Rumours are circulating that our home game against Chelsea will be moved due to a clash at the Emirates with the FA Youth Cup.

Nothing is concrete yet, and I would be very surprised if a Premier League game is moved for a Youth Cup game.

The rules of the FA Youth Cup is that “the Final is to be scheduled before Saturday 29 April.” The below is taken directly from the FA website:

Anyone involved in lower league or non-league football will know you usually have a deadline to schedule cup games, rather than an exact date they need to be held on. The FA Youth Cup is similar.

To highlight it, the 4 quarter finals took place on the 22 & 23 February, 2 March and 7 March.

Clubs can hold them “within a time frame” to enable them to use their main stadium for the gasme; usually scheduling the game for a weekday evening shortly before or after an away game.

So whilst Wikipedia might say the final is on the 29 April, the FA have yet to announce the actual date of the final.

REDAction bring up the Coronation as one of the reasons why. I am not sure how moving a game closer to the Coronation helps out with policing.

The Coronation of King Charles III is scheduled for 6 May, with street parties set to be held in celebration on 7 May. Moving the Arsenal v Chelsea game to the 2 May will distrupt the Mets preperations rather than help.

The “all police leave being taking the weekend before” only makes sense if every game in London and beyond was cancelled. But it is not.

On the Saturday, Crystal Palace travel to West Ham, Nottingham Forest to Brentford, and Chelsea to Arsenal. On the Sunday it is Fulham v Manchester City.

Also, we have spoken to a police officer who has informed us that whilst police leave can be cancelled, the OB can not then dictate that it must be taken on certain weekends. Leave scheduled for the weekend of 6 May would not automatically be shifted back a weekend.

If the game is moved from the Saturday to accomodate the FA Youth Cup, Islington will still need a fairly large police presence. I imagine it will be a 60,000 sell out, especially with West Ham not having a home game that weekend.

So “police leave” as a reason for moving the Premier League game makes zero sense.

It is interesting that Sky have moved the WBA v Norwich game from 3pm to 5:30pm on the same day as we were due to play Chelsea, almost as if they have a TV slot to now fill.

The women’s team play at the Emirates on 1 May in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. I can not see Arsenal being happy with a game taken place on the Emirates pitch on Saturday 29, Monday 1 and Tuesday 2, especially with the last game being the mens team. The most important side.

What will more likely happen is the FA Youth Cup final will be announced for Thursday 27 April.

That Thursday, Arsenal are not playing, West Ham are not playing, and the stadium is free to be used. Then the Chelsea game will go ahead as expected at 17:30 on Saturday 29. Finally the womens game will be on Monday 1 May.

If the game is getting move, for seemingly no reason whatsoever, then it will be fans who lose out. Norwich fans travelling to Birmingham lose out. And those with booked trains and hotels for Arsenal and Chelsea will lose out.

On today’s game, I have remained fairly consistent this season. Manchester City are favourites for the title.

Even with us 8 points clear, I still have them down as favourites.

And even though the media and opposing fans are now going with “greatest capitulation if Arsenal do not win it from here” narrative, I still have Manchester City as favoruites.

8 points might be a huge gap, but it is not a chasm.

Manchester City have a game in hand – at home against West Ham. You have to assume they will win that. We also have to go to City away.

In our last 15 meetings with City, we have lost 14. Winning once. We have also gone 14 games without beating them in the league. And the last time we beat them in Manchester was in 2015.

Arsenal winning in Manchester will be a surprise. So suddenly that 8 point gap is only actually two.

And with trips to Liverpool and Newcastle still to come, Arsenal have a tougher run in than Man City. And that is why despite an 8 point lead, I do not recognise us as favourites, and have not yet begun to dream of lifing the title in May.

Win today, and that potentially changes.

Our two point leads (lets call it 2 rather than 8), means we can probably afford to lose once more outside of Manchester City. Looking at the fixtures ahead, that defeat could happen at Anfield or St James Park.

Worse case scenario is we lose both those games, ans against City, and they win the league by a couple of points.

Victory today will mean that we could probably afford to lose against City, and against Newcastle, and lift the title. Unless Man City win all remaining 11 games (which I would not put it beyond them to do).

Lose today, and all the pressure is on that Newcastle game.

I probably fear the Newcastle game more than the Liverpool one. There is a reason they are 3rd in the league. And last season st James Park was where our top 4 dreams died.

We are a very different side than then. We capitulated that day. Bottled it. Ran out of steam. But Newcastle are also a different side. And it will not be easy for us.

If we win today, it potentially changes everything. Especially for City fans who will have this down as a defeat.

Beat Liverpool and I might just start dreaming…

Keenos