Daniel’s Debrief: Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool

Wow, wow, and wow again.

Wowing at the result?

Wowing at Ibrahima Konate and Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Wowing at the away end scenes?

All of the above.

I didn’t care. I went into this wanting to win but not hugely bothered, all week I’ve been saying the FA Cup is bottom of the priority list and that a loss here is fine.

We come out of it and I’m now saying that the FA Cup is fucking great and that Liverpool can win all four this season.

Satire, of course, but Liverpool are competitive in four competitions right now and this season is giving 2021/22 vibes.

For 45 minutes, though, there’s very little in the way of positivity. Arsenal dominate the first half and find themselves ruing missed opportunities from Martin Odegaard, Reiss Nelson and Kai Havertz.

It’s a first half that Liverpool just keep finding themselves in trouble on the ball. They don’t move it quickly, don’t have any tempo and as a result, are pressed well by a lively Arsenal team.

Jorginho and Declan Rice get it and give it and Liverpool’s midfield struggles to get to grips with them, apart from Curtis Jones who is good, if unspectacular, and much of his good work actually comes on the left wing.

At the back, they are reliant on Konate and Jarell Quansah, both of whom are superb, as Joe Gomez is a little off-colour in the first half before recovering well in the second.

Alisson Becker hasn’t been called upon much in the last few weeks but is colossal in the first half, making big saves from both Havertz and Ben White.

It’s a first half that Liverpool have to ride the wave of and one that the biggest positive to take from was the scoreline.

Arsenal will wonder how they didn’t score and whilst their poor finishing can be to blamed, there has to be a degree of credit given to Liverpool for how many dangerous attacks and shots they successfully keep out.

Konate in particular is phenomenal, he puts off Nelson when the winger has rounded Alisson and gets a sensational block to deny Havertz before Odegaard hits the bar.

He is a brilliant defender and at his best is one of the elite. In the absence of the ill Virgil Van Dijk, Konate leads the defence supremely and it takes a defensive performance of this standard to prevent Arsenal scoring in the first half.

Exceptional.

Liverpool just don’t string their attacks together well in that first period and look like they lack both cohesion in shape but also quality on the ball.

Harvey Elliott is a good player but is not a winger - he is not fast enough and his best work is done on the ball in the half-space, while Alexis Mac Allister has a tough outing and is subbed off for his own good in the second half after a series of fouls.

These are the games of such significant that a natural DM can be missed in - Wataru Endo might have offered Liverpool a bit more control than Mac Allister does today.

Cody Gakpo is still a bit of an enigma and does some good work to bring Alexander-Arnold into play when he hits the bar but he is so elusive and he is shaken off the ball far too easily with his back to goal.

He has got to use his body more effectively if he is going to make a go of a role in midfield. This is a position that I think he can do pretty much exclusively at home to average sides - I think of Brentford at home earlier this season.

Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz find themselves a little isolated in the first half but work relentlessly and both get their rewards with dramatic improvements in the second half.

Jurgen Klopp is a master of improving a team at half-time and while there is always focus on what is said in the dressing room, Klopp’s greatest asset this season has been his tactical astuteness, and we see some tweaks which changes the balance of the match completely.

Diaz is moved from the left to the right wing, with Gakpo now going up top and Nunez on the left. Elliott drops into midfield alongside Jones and Mac Allister and there is an immediate improvement.

There is far more connection to the team and with pace out wide, Liverpool have outlets to counter-attack and a midfield that is more comfortable on the ball, with the presence of Elliott in there.

Having been suffocated in the middle by Arsenal, Liverpool could now play around the home team on the flanks.

The improvement is not limited to the attack, though. Gomez is terrific in the second half and keeps Bukayo Saka pretty quiet, and the one time he does get in, Gomez recovers so well to thwart the winger as he is about to shoot.

Playing the football of his career, is Gomez.

The biggest improvement comes when Klopp makes two changes. Diogo Jota and Ryan Gravenberch come on for Gakpo and Mac Allister, and Liverpool are operating with Jones as a single pivot and Gravenberch and Elliott ahead of him.

For half an hour, Jota is absolutely magnificent.

He is the one who changes this game from in the middle to bang in Liverpool’s favour.

Liverpool had survived until the hour mark and with all of Arsenal’s missed chances, it started to feel more and more like it could be Liverpool’s day.

Clever footwork from Jota has Diaz in and Aaron Ramsdale saves well at his near post, Jota himself hits the bar with a header, followed by a poor Nunez miss on the rebound, Nunez curls a bender wide and Diaz and Nunez fail to combine on a threatening counter-attack.

Suddenly, it’s Liverpool having the chances.

And it’s Jota who brings about this change in dynamic. He is such an effective footballer. I think he’s so immensely underrated.

With the pace and aggression of Nunez and Diaz either side of him, Jota brings the connectivity and cohesion to an attack that until this point, had felt like one of individuals.

His decision making is first-class and his footwork is so good. The ball sticks to him and his dribbling ability has developed a lot recently.

He’s the most intelligent of Liverpool’s forwards in front of goal and certainly the calmest. He never panics and I’ve spoken before about Tottenham at home last season - I’m convinced he’s the only player in the squad who would’ve scored that goal.

He is so two-footed and his ability in the air, as well as in all phases of the pitch, is devastating. 

If Jota had started up front instead of Havertz for Arsenal today, the game would’ve been won by half-time.

Eventually, the breakthrough comes. Alexander-Arnold is Liverpool’s only way out in the first half and he showcases some of his outrageous passing in the second, including one where he’s stuck by the corner flag and picks out a cross-field ball to Nunez.

He’s moved into the six position and I wouldn’t be surprised now if long-term, this is where his future is because how he can dictate from deep is a joy to behold.

He puts in a delicious cross from a set-piece and Jakub Kiwior connects with it and puts it into his own goal.

While it’s Kiwior that gets the touch, if he hadn’t, one of a number of purple shirts would’ve done instead.

It’s Gravenberch who wins the free-kick for this goal and his cameo is miles better than anything he’s produced in the last month.

Also on are Conor Bradley and Bobby Clark for Jones and Elliott, both of whom tired a lot, and both academy graduates can be pleased with their performances.

Bradley locks down Gabriel Martinelli after Alexander-Arnold - in midfield by this point, had struggled a little with him, while Clark makes a fantastic foul on Rice and takes a yellow card when Arsenal are countering.

It’s a great day for the academy with Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Jones, Elliott, Clark and Bradley all contributing, as well as Caoimhin Kelleher, Trey Nyoni, Luke Chambers, Kaide Gordon and James McConnell making the matchday squad.

The game is won when Liverpool counter through Nunez and he feeds Jota. Jota directs the attack masterfully and finds Diaz, who crashes the ball home with aplomb.

Diaz has a marvellous second half on the right wing.

I wonder if anyone had called for him to play there in the week.

Worth mentioning some other big second half moments - Alisson’s tip-over when Saka looked certain to score, Jota out-jumping William Saliba from a corner and Quansah completing the most passes of anyone in the team, again.

Yes, Liverpool had to survive a tough first half but Alan Shearer’s suggestion that Arsenal could’ve been “at least four or five” in front at half-time was incredible, as in not credible.

They finish the first half with 1.7xG. Seems like Shearer is still feeling the after-effects of Newcastle’s win yesterday.

Liverpool are joining them in the fourth round of a competition that they could’ve been forgiven for not being interested in.

But now, they’re very much interested in it and they look like a team that could win any game of football.

They’re missing Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Endo, Thiago, Andrew Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai to name a few, but Klopp is making every single one of his lineups competitive right now.

And that’s why Liverpool are in all four competitions and that’s why they can win any of them.

He is a manager who is starting to love the cups more and more - since we won them both in 2022 he’s treated both cup competitions with great respect and today got me thinking about Arsenal in the semi-finals of the League Cup that year, when we also win 2-0 at the Emirates.

Before Klopp, Liverpool had only ever won once there, in 2011, but have five times picked up a win at the Emirates under him - 2016, 2021, 2022, 2022, 2024.

Some manager, some team, some season.

And Konate ripped off someone’s hat and launched it into the away end.

Daniel