** Theo Walcott's had his 28th minute penalty saved after a foul from left back Alberto Moreno
** However Walcott struck the opener from the right side of the box into the far corner on 31 minutes
** Philippe Coutinho whipped in a stunning 25 yard freekick to equalise in first half stoppage time
** Liverpool took the lead early in the second half when Adam Lallana capped a flowing team move
** Coutinho volleyed in his second on 56 minutes and Sadio Mane then cracked in a superb solo goal
** Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers struck two for the Gunners in response
The
miserable facts for Arsenal manager are that his team lost at home on
opening day of the Premier League season for the third time in four
years. That is all that will consume the Frenchman on Sunday night after
an afternoon that threatened to descend in to open supporter rebellion
as Liverpool scored four times in sixteen incredible minutes in north
London.
From 4-1 down – they had led in the first half – Arsenal
managed to make a game, a crazy game, of it by scoring the game’s final
two goals. To lose by the odd goal in seven represented something of an
achievement given the state they were in with less than half an hour
left. It perhaps saved Wenger from a savaging at full-time.
** MATCH FACTS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE
* Arsenal
(4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Holding, Chambers, Monreal; Elneny (Xhaka
67), Coquelin; Walcott, Ramsey (Cazorla 60), Iwobi (Oxlade-Chamberlain
58); Sanchez
Subs not used: Gibbs, Wilshere, Ospina, Akpom
Goal: Walcott 31, Oxlade-Chamberlain 64, Chambers 75
Booked: Coquelin, Iwobi, Xhaka
* Liverpool
(4-3-3): Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Moreno; Lallana (Origi 75),
Henderson, Wijnaldum; Mane, Coutinho (Can 70), Firmino
Subs not used: Manninger, Grujic, Matip, Stewart, Alexander-Arnold
Goals: Coutinho 45+1 and 56, Lallana 49, Mane 63
Booked: Lallana, Moreno, Lovren
This, though, was helter skelter football from both teams.
Neither were able to close the game down once they were in control of it
and that may yet prove portentous for clubs that lacked consistency
last time around.
Liverpool won the game and will skip north up the M1 with a smile. They will talk about this for a while.
But
for Jurgen Klopp and his players, too, there was almost as much to
worry about as there was to enjoy on a day that saw Liverpool swing from
the sublime to the utterly preposterous.
The
bare facts are that Arsenal – fielding a central defensive partnership
of Calum Chambers and 20-year-old debutant Rob Holding – controlled the
first half and led through a Theo Walcott goal that came only minute
after the same player had missed a penalty.
Two minutes in to
added time, Arsenal remained in control. But a free-kick goal from
Philippe Coutinho changed everything and Liverpool emerged for the
second half to tear Arsenal apart. As Wenger’s team collapsed, Liverpool
surged through them, scoring through Adam Lallana, Coutinho again and
then Saido Mane. All four of the Liverpool goals were superb in their
own way.
As
Liverpool celebrated their final goal with Klopp, there seemed no way
back for Arsenal. Wenger, motionless on the bench, was getting it from
all sides. But just as it was about to get very ugly indeed, Arsenal
somehow found some form of retaliation and when Chambers’ header
followed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal to make it 4-3 there was still
fifteen minutes of the second period left to play.
In the end
Arsenal couldn’t complete their comeback and there will be a minority of
Arsenal supporters who won’t mind too much. They belong to the faction
that believe Wenger should walk. One game in to the new season and his
players are not helping and that seems very strange indeed considering
the way the afternoon had started.
With Arsenal fielding such a
young central defensive pairing, Klopp no doubt instructed his own
players to begin with a tempo and place Holding and Chambers under as
much pressure as possible. As it happened, it was Arsenal who started
the brighter and they were the only team in the game early on.
In
the opening stages, most of Arsenal’s best work came down their right
side where Liverpool’s left-back Alberto Moreno looked uncomfortable.
That set the tone for the rest of the first half.
Walcott was
actually the first player to exploit the weakness, drifting wide to
provide the overlapping Hector Bellerin with the chance to cross. On
this occasion the ball was over hit and drifted out of play at the far
post but Liverpool had been warned.
Liverpool were also boasting a
new central defensive partnership, with the Estonian Ragner Klaven
playing alongside Dejan Lovren. There seemed to be a few teething
problems, as you may expect, and only eight minutes had passed when
Alexis Sanchez teed up Aaron Ramsey inside the penalty area and Mignolet
saved a first time shot that arrived from the outside of the Welshman’s
right foot.
At
this stage Liverpool just weren’t in the game. Klopp’s team were
struggling for meaningful possession and as a result couldn’t get
players like new signing Mane in the game at all.
One neat
passing move featuring Lallana, Countinho and Jordan Henderson did allow
the breaking Nathaniel Clyne to work Peter Cech in the Arsenal goal in
the 13th minute but at that stage it was an isolated moment of fluency
from the visiting team.
Much more meaningful was a moment at the
other end soon after that saw a mistake by Klaven present the ball to
Ramsey ten yards out. On this occasion Moreno was alert and was able to
tackle the Arsenal midfielder as he attempted to get his shot away.
With
Arsenal not able to turn their early thrusts in to clear chances or
goals, Liverpool were able to find a way in to the game. One run across
field from the right by Mane served notice of the former Southampton
player’s threat while Firmino saw a shot blocked after fellow Brazilian
Coutinho set him up cleverly.
As the half an hour mark came and
went, Klopp may have been sitting a little more comfortably. But if he
was, a reminder of his team’s issues soon struck him between the eyes.
His
team were simply not coping when Arsenal broke on them through the
middle. Lallana was booked for one clumsy hack at Ramsey while Lovren
was similarly cautioned for hauling down Sanchez just before half-time.
Before then, however, Moreno contributed two aberrations that appeared to turn the game Arsenal’s way.
The
first was a clumsy tackle on Walcott inside the penalty area in the
31st minute. It seemed as though the Spaniard may have laid a foot on
the ball but replays told otherwise and it was a risky challenge anyway
in a position that required vigilance rather than intervention.
Referee
Michael Oliver awarded a penalty and though Mignolet dived smartly to
his right to save Walcott’s kick it was only a minute or so before the
Arsenal forward scored from an altogether more difficult position.
Again
Moreno was culpable, this time for being caught out of position as
Walcott ran on to a pass from Alex Iwobi. Walcott had much to do when he
received the ball on the right but his low shot across Mignolet was
struck well and beat the Belgian low in to the corner.
Only half
an hour or so in to the new season and already Moreno’s stock was
plummeting. All he could do was hold on and hope that his team’s
attacking players got him out of jail.
It didn’t really look like
happening as half-time approached. Certainly there had been little in
Liverpool’s attacking play to worry young Holding. But the 20-year-old
made the mistake of laying the lightest of hands on Coutinho in added
time and was made to rue his mistake.
Referee
Oliver was quite clear in explaining his decision to Arsenal’s
protesting players. Maybe they knew what was coming. Coutinho was fully
30 yards out as he stood over the free kick but a stroke of the right
foot sent the ball high over the wall and in to the top corner as Cech
leaped across his goal in vain.
Arsenal would have felt
disappointed at half-time. Wenger’s team had been the better side for
most of the opening period. But within eleven minutes of the second half
starting, Arsenal had all but fallen apart.
Certainly Liverpool
looked much more like a Klopp team after the break. They began to press
quickly and move the ball quickly. In many ways, they were transformed
and, remarkably, so Arsenal were too, only the other way round.
As Liverpool upped the tempo and began to play with confidence, Arsenal couldn’t cope.
Lallana’s
goal arrived just two minutes in to the second half. It was beautifully
created by Georginio Wijnaldum’s chip across goal and even more
adroitly taken by Lallana, screwing a low shot back across goal with
admirable poise.
It seemed remarkable that Liverpool were ahead.
For so long it had been Klopp’s team that had struggled for rhythm. But
suddenly they were rampant and their third and fourth goals, arriving in
the 56th and 63rd minutes, were symptomatic of the way the game had
turned.
Coutinho’s
second goal of the game was a beauty. Clyne ran hard at Nacho Monreal
down the right and beat him to the byline to produce a low cross that
the Brazilian volleyed in from six yards. A minute later Firmino set him
up again from a similar position but this time Cech was able to save.
By
now the Emirates was simmering. The murmurings of irritation that has
been audible at half-time had been turned up to high by Liverpool’s
goals and the target was Wenger.
Arsenal badly needed to settle,
to grab hold of something, but they couldn’t. Mane was the next scorer,
cutting in from the right past Chambers and driving a brilliant rising
shot across Cech and into the top corner with his left foot.
As
Klopp celebrated by offering his new signing a piggy back, all Wenger
could hear was abuse and by now it was getting nasty. A man holding a
placard asking: ‘Where has Our Money Gone?’ was spoken to by stewards
behind the away dug out and this intervention only served to increase
the anger of those seated further back.
Indeed, such was the
bedlam that many Arsenal will not have noticed Oxlade-Chamberlain – on
as a substitute for the injured Ramsey – wriggling through to pull a
goal back with a deflected shot.
At this stage, there were still
25 minutes left and technically Arsenal were still in it. Liverpool had
scored four times in sixteen crazy minutes but Klopp’s team didn’t look
wholly solid as Arsenal found a little fresh life and tried to assert
themselves with some football again.
Klopp
did his bit by sending on Emre Can to try and ensure Liverpool did not
concede again and it was a sensible move. The only problem was that it
didn’t work. With 15 minutes still to play, Arsenal won a free-kick on
the left and when Santi Cazorla swung in a straight forward free-kick
Chambers rose above Klaven to glance a header past Mignolet.
A
draw was perhaps the most likely result at this stage. It would have
been about right, too. But Arsenal couldn’t muster a fourth and when
Cazorla smacked a shot in to the backside of a team mate in added time
to spurn his team’s last chance, it seemed somehow fitting.
The Liverpool squad are led to applaud their away fans by manager Klopp after a 4-3 triumph in north London
