I love Anfield night games for only one reason – I can mentally re-run the glorious events of 26 May 1989. A night never to be forgotten and as important to the development of mankind as the invention of the wheel, the conception of language, the development of steam engine and electricity, the invention of the spinning jenny and the birth of Dennis Bergkamp.

However, this evening , though important, has no dramatic finality; a win and we extend our time TotL,  a loss and we are still in a podium position with much of the season remaining.

Let’s start with Klopp. I have to admit I was hugely disappointed to see him at Anfield, my hope was that he would succeed Mr. Wenger and bring his charm to The Home Of Football. I am not convinced that his football philosophy is suited to Arsenal but there can be little doubt he would have challenged to likes of Gazidis to make the club more media-friendly. His public regard for Mr. Wenger says much about him.  He will do well at Anfield.

As to his current team; once again we have been duped by the Scouse loving media. All that guff about “ham-strung,” L’pool will start with a very strong team  and are probably better in central defence than when playing the bald thug bloke and the odd looking fellow they signed from S’ton. Having said that, Kolo’s last appearance at the Emirates was proof that he remains a Gooner – let us hope he repeats his performance tonight 😀

The new look Liverpool are a decent team and Arsenal will have to be much better than they have been in recent games. Fortunately Coutinho is hamstrung but they still have some fine attacking players.

As to Arsenal, the team almost picks itself. Many had a relaxing time riding the pine on Saturday and are fit for fight. As I am on a foreign computer I cannot do a team plan but you already know who will get a start.

Central midfield will be important. Lucas is a fine CM, better (IMO) than anyone we have at closing down the area in front of the defence. We have more skill, they have more power. I like to think skill wins.

Our forward line is a concern. OG is scoring but seems ill at ease, Theo has been anonymous and if he wants to maintain his place in the team when Sanchez returns he will have to influence the game far more than he has since his return.

Anfield is always a difficult fixture and L’pool are unpredictable – sometimes rubbish, sometimes very good. They played very well at The Emirates where we were outplayed for much of the game. I expect us to dominate possession and L’pool to try and use the power and pace of Benteke.

I would be satisfied with a point tonight.

COYRRG

So Petr Cech has showed us we have have a world class keeper now. Happy with that. Again the footballing gods have betrayed us……a proper goal incorrectly ruled offside and Mignolet pulling out a couple of blinders (the only problem is so did Cech so that probably cancels itself out).

Well by my reckoning we should be at least 7 points from 9 after 3 games, and I say at least. So we sit on 4. It is easy to say that this is not so much a problem so early in the season with so many games left, but the EPL is so competitive these days that a top team like us, (capable of winning the EPL), could probably lose it in the first 5 games if they leave themselves too much to do.  I believe playing catch up is now far harder to do and you will not see the likes of our overhaul of Utd in the 1997-1998 season again.

I believe playing catch up is now far harder to do and you will not see the likes of our In the last 2 seasons we have either finished as the winners in the first half or second half of the season but have not put 2 great halves of the season together and won the title. Consistency I guess is the order of the day. We could probably argue that injuries have played a large part historically, and I couldn’t disagree with that. Not quite having those extra 1-2 quality players in the right positions could also be an argument. I couldn’t disagree with that also.

However, despite all this, and my personal feeling we still require 1-2 key top players to be an absolute certainty as a top team, we still have a squad with the potential to beat any team out there and win the top prizes. So it is my assertion that we are not making the most of what we have available to us.

Boring I know to mention it again, but I still feel Arsene has a blind spot when it comes to favouring playing the types of players that he likes most as opposed to playing the best balanced side.

Don’t get me wrong, Liverpool are not a bad outfit, but are a side in transition with a lot of new players and are not ready for a serious title charge. We did play parts of the game in the ascendency with some good spells but the sheer quality of the players on the pitch tends to guarantee that at times. One of the serious title challenging teams will expose Liverpool this season and the fact that we didn’t do this, and also win the game, potentially doesn’t bode well.

In a more general sense I would say that I can’t think of a modern successful team that doesn’t have an abundance of pace and penetration from 2-3 sources in attack. In this game we really only had Sanchez as a true pacey attacking player from the start of the game. When we did introduce the extra pace players was it too late to have the time to influence the game

I said before the game that my biggest worry this season was not in who we did or didn’t recruit but in how we used the squad we had available to us to get the most balanced and fluid of teams. Others may see our problem areas as different of course and I always enjoy a different perspective, this is just the main problem as I see it

Walcott and AOC left on the bench for more slow but technical ball players? Were they introduced too late in the game? Were we just unlucky? Is it too early to make a judgement on us this season? Are bad habits resurfacing that will see us fall just short when we didn’t need to

A draw with Liverpool need not be a source of concern under normal circumstances, but for me there were possible worrying signs that we haven’t learnt from the past and that would be a shame for a team that I feel could win the EPL with what it currently has. Aside from the injuries this reminds me of the start of last season when we had a great team on paper but looked out of sorts. Arsene needs to sort it out quickly or we may end up the EPL champions for the 2^nd half of the season again, and unless I am wrong they don’t give you a trophy for that.

Written by GoonerB