Arsenal 2- 0 Liverpool: Reds' lopsided pressing and Sagna’s overlaps stretch defensive trio

Rodgers changes to a 4-4-2 but surrenders midfield battle

Rodgers change of shape at half time saw Liverpool shift back to a 4 man defence as Coutinho came on for Cissokho. Rodgers was now playing a 4-4-2 with Henderson and Coutinho on the flanks, with either of the 2 alternating to drift in.

But this resulted in Liverpool essentially playing with 2 Central midfielders against Arsenal’s trio. The first half had seen the likes of Arteta sitting deep in his half, watching the runs of Suarez closely. But the mismatch of numbers in the 2nd half saw both Ramsey and Arteta shuttle ahead much more.

Though this did open up couple of chances for Suarez, but it made Gerrard and Lucas sit very deep in their half with absolutely no pressing. With pure intent of just closing down the space between the lines, the duo was able to press the likes of Ozil and Cazorla on the edge of the box, and rarely covered the likes of Ramsey running ahead.

One such move saw Gerrard and Lucas covering Ozil, and Henderson looking for his man Cazorla on the left, and an unmarked Rasmey stroll in and score a beauty from the edge of the box.

Aaron Ramsey

The substitutions for the rest of the game were purely reactive. Rodgers shifted Henderson to Right back by bringing Moses on for Flannagan. With Moses powering his way from the centre towards the right, Vermaelen who had come on for Gibbs now had his hands full.

So Henderson was getting a couple of chances to cross in dangerously from the right. So Wenger brought in Nacho Monreal for Rosicky just to stem down this attack. A similar move saw Jenkinson come in on the right to cut out Coutinho’s late threat.

The game was supposed to be dependent on the Sturridge-Suarez combo upfront, but Sturridge’s absurdly high positioning next to Mertersacker, and Arteta and Koscielny’s brilliant marking of Suarez reduced the threat majorly.

Arsenal were lacking the width on the flank to trouble a 3 man defence initially, but the loads of space given to Cazorla and Ozil in front of Liverpool’s defence proved to be the crucial woe for Rodgers.