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#3 Are Liverpool still celebrating?
It’s become clear that Liverpool is still in a celebratory mood from winning the Premier League. Coming into the match against Arsenal, the champions had failed to win three of their last six league games, having only failed to win two of the 38 before that.
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Both of Arsenal’s goals came from Liverpool being sloppy at the back. Virgil van Dijk, who has rarely put a foot wrong all game, was at fault for the first goal as he directly assisted Lacazette, putting him through on goal.
The second goal came from even more sloppiness in the Liverpool defence as Alisson under-hit a pass which Lacazette was alert enough to intercept. Klopp himself said after the game that they can’t make those kinds of mistakes at this level. Regardless of the fact that Arteta’s men only had 3 shots on goal all game, they were clinical enough to punish a sloppy Liverpool display.
#2 Reiss Nelson gets an opportunity
Before the game, Mikel Arteta had said that several players hadn’t been getting minutes that perhaps deserved a run-out. On Wednesday night, Reiss Nelson got his first start since competitive football returned and played in quite an unfamiliar role. On the counter-attack, it seemed as though Nelson and Pepe were stationed as a front two looking to get in behind while Lacazette dropped deep.
While Liverpool were in possession, Nelson was tasked with pressing their backline. This eventually paid off in the 32nd minute as he would press Virgil van Dijk into misplacing a pass, leading to Arsenal’s opening goal. The Englishman would then get his own reward 12 minutes later as he slotted in a timely finish from a Lacazette pass. This was his first-ever Premier League goal and hopefully the first of many.
#1 VAR inconsistency... again
Eddie Nketiah is currently sitting on the sidelines with a three-game suspension because of a challenge he made on Leicester City’s James Justin. At the time, it was deemed a straight red and when Arsenal appealed the decision, it was dismissed instantly. Since then, we’ve seen two similar incidents that have only received a yellow card. Arsenal fans are now asking the question, where is the consistency?
We’ve once again seen that VAR is not the problem, it’s the referees behind it. Officials in the VAR rooms are scared to overturn decisions by their fellow professionals and it’s leading to a lot of wrong calls.
On Wednesday night, we saw Trent Alexander-Arnold place his studs on Bukayo Saka’s shin. When feet are off the ground above the ankle in a challenge, it’s instantly a danger to the opponent and should be punished in that manner.
