A tale of two penalties and a whole heap of madness at The Emirates
Arsenal 3 Liverpool 2, 9th October 2022.
Arsenal 3 Liverpool 2, 9th October 2022.
Where on earth do we start with the utter madness that has just occurred under the lights of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium?
Here’s a capsule review:
Arsenal fully deserved their victory and their current place at the summit of English football on the strength of their second half performance alone.
The first half belonged almost in its entirety to a visiting Liverpool team often outnumbered in midfield, but with the industry of Thiago Alcantara and captain Jordan Henderson in the centre of the pitch they held sway and controlled the tempo and positional sense of the game even at 1–0 down.
To go in 2–1 down was incredibly harsh on the visiting Reds in their alternative white/silver and they were simply sucker punched by an early goal from their first attack (and with Kostas Tsimikas caught attacking upfield) and a late goal with the shambolic defending that would ultimately lose them the game they were destined to lose for large parts of the second half.
After controlling the first half the Reds needed another body in midfield before the 65th minute when I called the substitution needed, Fabinho into midfield and Diogo Jota off. Three minutes later Fabinho was indeed introduced and for some unfathomable reason Mo Salah was taken off.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s half-time substitution was less baffling (injury or otherwise), but the first half dominance (despite being 2–1 down) was sorely absent as soon as the second half got underway.
At 2–2 and a defence retreating deeper and deeper, the introduction of Fabinho was crucial (as well as the attacking option of Harvey Elliott too) as Thiago and Henderson could no longer either play through the Arsenal midfield or be missed out and longer balls to Darwin Nunez or Roberto Firmino to simply relieve the pressure. This led to the crucial match winning penalty and the Keystone Kops defending that allowed a crazy decision to be made by the referee Michael Oliver. The kamikaze defending leading to the award of the game winning penalty was summed up post match by Jurgen Klopp as “kicking the ball as far away as possible” and instead a shaky and dishevelled defence dallied and panicked and gave the referee a decision to make horribly incorrect.
If the penalty awarded on 76 minutes that allowed Bukayo Saka to score the game’s winning goal is a penalty, then we may as well all go home! It’ll be called a “soft” penalty but blimey, that was a blancmange!
Talking of penalty awards: What exactly happened on 15 minutes when Gabriel (who seemed to have a lot to say for himself considering what a dreadful game he was having) obviously handled the ball at shoulder height? It was an obvious penalty, it certainly wasn’t soft and bafflingly, neither was it awarded. Dreadful stuff.
Luis Diaz was fantastic as usual and a real driving force and energy prior to the injury that forced his substitution. Let’s hope he’s back sooner rather than later as this team needs his youthful exuberance and in spades.
The tackle on Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t clever and neither was Kostas Tsimikas’ elbow on Gabriel Jesus. It was that sort of game at times, niggly and more ill tempered as the match headed toward a final whistle and a final rubber stamp on a quite surreal 90 minutes in north London.
Here’s a personal postscript.
I usually formulate a more considered, coherent and flowing match report than the one provided here and I can certainly elucidate some thoughts on the energy of Diaz that led to the Reds first equaliser and the sublime interplay between Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson that led to Roberto Firmino’s equaliser to make the game 2–2 early in the second half. I could extol the virtues of how Thiago and Henderson dominated an over manned midfield against them but needed a reinforcement long before Fabinho came on and how this season is the predicted “Sword of Damocles season” and one that will continue to provide huge peaks and ginormous troughs.
We can all be “armchair quarterbacks” to mix my sporting metaphors and football fans the world over would love to have predicted the 3–2 score line that my football hating son did! But prior to today’s game I wandered to my local convenience store to talk football as I’m oft to do with friends Bobby and John. I confirmed to John that I feared Gabriel Martinelli would have a real game today and sadly I was proven correct. A first minute goal and an all around pesky and nagging attacking threat resulted in the 21 year old Brazilian gaining the TV’s “Man of the Match” award and rightly so. Gabriel Martinelli is destined to be some player indeed.
This evening’s encounter was a baffling and bonkers game at times that tilted heavily in favour of one team for one half of football and then the other. The most obvious and outrageous decisions went in favour of the home team from London and a team that’s slowly and surely inching their way past their visitors from Liverpool and are now the only real, viable challengers to Manchester City’s Premier League title.
The Reds will dispatch Rangers with ease on Wednesday and be on the brink of an early qualification for the knock-out stages of the Champions League, but their wildly swinging season is only just getting underway.
Thanks for reading. My Liverpool FC archives contain a wealth of articles past, present and often personal, or you can find the three most recently published articles linked below:
“Skippy” settles the Derby as the Reds close in on top spot
Retro Series Vol 22: Everton 1 Liverpool 3, 27th March 1982medium.com
Reds take great leap forward in Europe after easy win in the “Battle of Britain”
Liverpool 2 Rangers 0, UEFA Champions League, 4th October 2022medium.com
Trossard the hat-trick hero as the Reds stumble again
Liverpool 3 Brighton and Hove Albion 3, 1st October 2022medium.com