Match Report: Liverpool 0 – 0 Arsenal

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Liverpool (0) 0 Arsenal (0) 0

(Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties)

Carabao Cup (EFL Cup) Fourth Round

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

Thursday, 1st October 2020. Kick-off time: 7.45pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Cédric Soares, Gabriel Magalhães, Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac; Joe Willock, Granit Xhaka; Nicolas Pépé, Dani Ceballos, Bukayo Saka; Eddie Nketiah.

Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Rúnarsson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, David Luiz, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny.

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette, Cédric Soares, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nicolas Pépé, Joe Willock

Yellow Cards: Cédric Soares, Granit Xhaka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 43%

Referee: Kevin Friend

Assistant Referees: Adrian Holmes, Simon Beck

Fourth Official: Paul Tierney

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restructions

Here we are again, just three days after our last visit to Anfield; only now we lock horns with Liverpool in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. Traditionally, this competition has always been viewed as the “Aunt Sally” of domestic cup competitions, which is extremely unfair, because as we know, this can lead to a cup final hosted at Wembley Stadium and a possible placement in a European competition for the winning club next season. As expected, we have a few changes in the team this evening, but despite that, it still is an excellent line-up, all things considered. Everything to play for tonight, then. Let’s go!

Surprisingly, it was a bit of a messy start, really, with the ball being given away here and there, with both sides desperately trying to grab an early advantage.As early as the eighth minute, Nicolas Pépé ran to the byline, and after a mix-up in the Liverpool penalty area, the ball fell to Eddie Nketiah, and as he tried to take it around Adrian, he pushed the ball away from him. The home side appeared to wake up and put us under pressure now; Diego Jota came close with an awkward shot and a despite a period of Liverpool dominance, we managed to break out and Granit Xhaka supplied a couple of superb crosses into the Liverpool penalty area, but unfortunately his efforts came to nothing. The rest of the half settled down, and although both sides had their chances, the match became some kind of strange stalemate, with the only incident of note was when Liverpool demanded a penalty kick after Dani Ceballos tripped Diego Jota outside the penalty area a minute or so before the break. Thankfully referee Kevin Friend saw through their nonsense and waved them away, before blowing his whistle for half-time.

We made no changes during the interval and slowly and surely, Liverpool were winning the odd ball here and there, but it has to be said that in the chaotic ten minute or so period after half-time, Bernd Leno was immense. He stopped the home side from scoring on several occasions and single-handedly marshalled his defenders in front of him constantly. However, things started to change for us when Dani Ceballos was substituted for Mohamed Elneny twenty minutes before the end, and almost immediately, we came close to scoring on two occasions when Bukayo Saka and Rob Holding were desperately unlucky in not getting on the scoresheet. Ten minutes later, Eddie Nketiah really should have scored with a fantastic header, but unbelievably it went wide of the target by at least two yards. With five minutes of the match remaining, just a couple of minutes apart, Alexandre Lacazette replaced Eddie Nketiah, and Bukayo Saka was substituted for Ainsley Maitland-Niles in a final throw of the dice for Mikel Arteta. Liverpool sensed this, and literally threw everything at us, but thankfully our organised defence held, and as the time ebbed away, it was becoming obvious that we were all heading for the dreaded penalty shoot-out.

And so it’s penalties, and after a long, tiring match at Anfield, this is surely a situation that neither club must be looking forward to. James Milner sends Bernd Leno the wrong way to put the home team ahead, and Alexandre Lacazette also does the same thing to the Liverpool goalkeeper to equalise. Georginio Wijnaldum and Cédric Soares score the next two, whilst our hearts were in our mouths when Takumi Minamino scored for Liverpool, and sadly Mohamed Elneny saw his penalty saved to give advantage to the home side. Thankfully, Divock Origi’s penalty was saved by Bernd Leno and young Ainsley Maitland-Niles levelled the scores again. Curtis Jones and Nicolas Pépé made sure with their penalties to ensure that we are now into sudden death. An extremely nervous Harry Wilson saw his penalty saved well by Bernd Leno, and all eyes were now on our next man to step up to the plate. Joe Willock ran up, stroked the ball and Adrian was unable to stop the ball rolling over the line and as a result, we are through to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup by beating Liverpool 5-4 on penalties at Anfield on a dark and dank Thursday evening.

Phew! We did it! And at Anfield too! This victory will certainly lift everyone here at the club, and the chance to go all the way to Wembley in this competition will surely propel the players to fight for places in the first team, and the desire to win matches in all competitions will now be greater, and the sheer will to win in the hearts of the younger players must undoubtedly go up several notches now. Our next opponents in this competition are Manchester City at home in the third week of December, and after tonight, who knows what this side is truly capable of? Well done everyone!

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: Sheffield United at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, 4th October at 2.00pm (Premier League). 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.

Houssem Aouar, Matteo Guendouzi, Bukayo Saka and more

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Houssem Auoar

Arsenal will get a deal for Lyon midfielder Houssem Auoar over the line. It will be done.

His signing will add important creativity to Mikel Arteta’s side; and will also see Arsenal transition from 343 to 433.

For a long time, the view has been that Arteta prefers to play 433, but did not have the players to do so. Auoar changes that.

Whilst Auoar is a creative player, he is not a Mesut Ozil – a player who want to play behind the forward line, and contribute little defensively.

For Lyon, Auoar usually plays on the left hand side of a midfield 3. Arteta will look to see him replicate that:

Leno

Bellerin Luiz Gabriel Tierney

Ceballos Xhaka Auoar

Pepe Lacazette Aubameyang

Xhaka remains fairly static in the middle of the park, allowing the 2 number 8s either side to press and push forward – with Ceballos offering creativity on the right hand side of the pitch and Aouar on the left.

(Note: at this point this isn’t a debate on who the front 3 is. Whether it is Willian on the right instead of Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka on the left it Aubameyang down the middle. It’s a blog for another day).

Auoar will change the way Arsenal set up.

Matteo Guendouzi

Arsenal quickly realised this summer that the big bids for Matteo Guendouzi were not coming in.

The midfielder is still just 21-years-old and is extremely talented. But a mixture of attitude and Covid19 has seen his value plummet.

Guendouzi’s value at Arsenal has not been as low as it is now since joining the club.

Whilst he only has 2 years left on his contract, a good season on loan at Marseille next season will see his stock rise again.

If he gets his head down, Arsenal would expect his value to rise again and bids northwards of £35m next summer.

Regardless of performances, his time at Arsenal is over.

Bukayo Saka

Well deserved England call up.

Alongside Ainsley Maitland-Niles, it is the first time in a while 2 Arsenal players have been selected in the England squad.

Just hope Gareth Southgate doesn’t waste his talent.

Bernd Leno

Fabulous performance from Arsenal’s number 1 last night.

Bernd Leno has not let the club down since he joined Arsenal from Leverkusen, and Arsenal were completely correct in backing the man with over 300 top flight games to his name.

Now it is time for fans to forget about Emiliano Martinez, move on, and back the keeper who wanted to stay and fight for his place.

Celebrations

When did everyone become so concerned about how other clubs celebrate trophies?

Is there a rule book on what games teams can and can not celebrate winning? How much they can celebrate? What is too much? What is no enough?

How about just let players and fans live in the moment, and celebrate how they naturally feel at the time.

Keenos

From Auoar to Ozil, Partey to Chambers – what business will Arsenal get done before the deadlines?

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It’s October the 1st already.

The garden centres have put the BBQs away and the Christmas decorations are up in store. Yesterday I planted my winter hanging baskets.

Winter is coming, but more important is transfer deadline day is also coming, at least for international transfers.

The transfer window for international slams shut at 11pm on Monday October 5th. However domestic deals can still be made up until 5pm on the 16th of October.

It has been a well written story that Arsenal have too many players.

As it stands, we have 33 first team squad players listed on the website. More importantly than that is we currently have 19 non-home grown players.

We can only register 17 of those.

So players need to be sold, but players also need to be signed.

We are still a Thomas Partey and / or an Houssem Aouar from having a really good team.

Arsenal need to sell to buy. Not just to raise funds but also to free up the squad space – leaving players unregistered is not an option due to contractual issues that could arise.

So what do we expect to happen in the next few days (internationally) and weeks (domestically)?

Sead Kolasinac looks like he is out the door, off to Bayer Leverkusen. By the time this is published he might be gone.

He was rated as one of the best left backs in Germany, having been named in the Bundesliga team of the year in the season before joining Arsenal.

Following Kolasinac out of the door will be Lucas Torreira.

His move to Atletico Madrid will be rubber stamped.

Atlético want a loan with an obligation to buy, whilst Arsenal want a straight sale.

What might happen is a loan with an obligation to buy next season will be agreed, but at slightly higher than what Arsenal want for a transfer this summer.

Arsenal then might use a factoring company to get instant access to next summers transfer fee.

The departure of both will bring Arsenal’s squad size down to 31, and non-home grown contingent to 17. Bang on where we’d need to be.

Whilst you might think “Arsenal still need to sell to buy” there is a school of thought that the club have already written off the futures of Sokratis and Mesut Ozil.

Come deadline day, Arsenal will be happy to sell Sokratis for free, and accept a loan deal for Mesut Ozil where they continue to pay the majority of his wages for the rest of the season.

Both of these deals will probably happen quickly on deadline day as clubs look to take advantage of Arsenal having too many players.

Napoli have already tried to sign Sokratis for nothing. Arsenal rejected the deal but come Monday they will have no choice but to sign off on it.

With Ozil, the club would prefer to ship him out to a side that pays a big chunk of his wages. But the lore he becomes unwanted by Mikel Arteta, and the more Arsenal need rid to bring the squad numbers in line, the less a loaning club would be expected to contribute.

Do not be surprised to see him go to Turkey (or even join Kolasinac at Leverkusen), with Arsenal still paying £250-300k of his weekly wage.

There are 38 weeks left on Ozil’s contract. Arsenal’s fall liability would be around £13.3m. If we can get that done to just £10m, we’d have done well.

Sokratis leaving would also save the club £3.5m in wages, whilst Kolasinac & Torreira leaving frees up a further £7.5m. £11m in total.

Following Kolasinac & Torreira leaving, expect the club to move quickly for Auoar.

With Arsenal mentally writing Sokratis and Ozil off, we do not need to sell them before signing Auoar. The Frenchman can be signed with the two unwanted lads dumped on deadline day.

Deadline day is when we will move for Thomas Partey.

Kolasinac, Torreira, Sokratis & Ozil sold, with Aouar in would leave Arsenal at 16 non home-grown players.

If Arsenal pay the release clause for Partey, they do not need to negotiate with Atlético Madrid. It is just a case of taking the money to the Spanish FA HQ which in turn triggers that release clause. It will be a deal done quickly.

Calum Chambers and Shkodran Mustafi’s injuries have proved to be a hit of a headache for Arsenal this summer.

With the likes of West Ham, Fulham, Crystal Palace & Newcastle desperate for a centre back, both would have had plenty of interest if they were fit. But no one will take a risk with their injuries

Neither are expected to be fully match fit until the end of October. That is just 8 weeks before the winter window opens.

I would be very surprised if either leaves before January, but we might see a club like Fulham take the risk on Chambers and sign him prior to the October 16th domestic deadline. Expect another loan deal with an obligation to buy next summer for him.

As for Mustafi, expect a “Cedric deal” to be done with him in January.

This year Arsenal signed Cedric on loan, with an agreement for him to join permanently from Southampton in the summer when his contract expired.

Do not be surprised if Lazio or someone else takes Mustafi on loan for the 2nd half of the season, and he later joins that club when his Arsenal contract expires in the summer.

Arsenal would benefit from his wages being paid by someone else for the 2nd half of the season.

Matteo Guendouzi could leave if a big enough hid comes in for him. If not he will stay.

If Arsenal do secure Partey and Aouar, expect Emile Smith Rowe and Joe Willock to be loaned out to Premier League clubs – although these deals will happen closer to the 16th October.

So in summary, we do we predict:

Kolasinac SOLD

Torreira LOAN with obligation to buy

Auoar to be SIGNED

Sokratis to be SOLD for free on transfer deadline day

Ozil to be loaned out on transfer deadline day, Arsenal paying the majority of his wage

Partey to be SIGNED on deadline day

Chambers to leave on LOAN with an obligation to buy prior to October 16th

Mustafi towable on LOAN in January. He will join that club on a free transfer next summer

Willock and Smith Rowe to go out on LOAN closer to October 16th

We will keep track of our predictions and let you know how we get on.

Keenos