Smash and Grab at The Emirates
Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2, 7th January 2024.
ARSENAL 0
LIVERPOOL 2 (Kiwior own goal 80, Díaz 90+5)
Well who saw this result coming?
I certainly didn’t, and particularly so at the half-time stalemate of 0–0 when I was more than happy with a continuance of this score and an Anfield replay for a Reds in their alternative kit of all purple being thoroughly and completely outplayed and overwhelmed by a home team Arsenal, in their unfamiliar all white, laying siege to the Liverpool goal but spurning chance after goal scoring chance. Conservatively and truthfully speaking, Arsenal could and should have been 3–4 goals to the good and coasting into the 4th Round of the FA Cup after 45 minutes of a dominant display only missing that vital footballing ingredient, putting that bag of wind into the opposition’s “onion bag”. Kai Havertz had 5 prime goal scoring chances according to the statisticians but I counted 3 guilt edged opportunities on 7 minutes, 38 minutes and 2 minutes before the half-time break, but he spurned them all. Combine these with Reiss Nelson rounding Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker on 2 minutes yet shooting into the side netting when he should have scored, “Gunners” captain Martin Ødegaard crashing his shot onto the crossbar on 10 minutes following a hectic goal mouth scramble, Declan Rice testing Becker from long range on 37 and a sizzling drive from Ben White a minute later that forced Becker into a brilliant tip-over save, it’s a plainly obvious fact that Arsenal were knocking on the Reds door, creating and missing a multitude of brilliant goal scoring chances, but had failed to ram home their impressive, attacking advantage.
My self-published book on Liverpool FC
After a passive first half whereby the Reds only created 2 goal scoring opportunities, a weak and tame header from Darwin Núñez and arguable “Man of the Match” Trent Alexander-Arnold crashing a thunderbolt onto the Arsenal crossbar on the cusp of half-time, Liverpool were vastly improved after the break with Núñez playing wider on the attacking left and a makeshift defence and youthful midfield pushing higher, squeezing the play and being far more progressive and attacking when in possession of the ball. Passivity and a defensive mindset became progressive and adventurous with at one stage Jarell Quansah, a central defender, and Joe Gomez, the Reds emergency left back, exchanging passes and combining in attack on the left wing! Arsenal’s avalanche of goal scoring chances slowly dried up in a second half of cut and thrust FA Cup football more befitting two of England’s premier, in form teams but where the home team continued to fluff their lines, the Reds found their eloquence and a dash of FA Cup luck too.
As the over 7,000 Reds in the “Away End” continued to serenade their London counterparts with the pleasing old school anthem of “Liverpool, Liverpool, Top of the League. Liverpool, Top of the League”, the luck arrived in the 80th minute via the head of Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior who inadvertently headed past his own goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale for the game’s opening goal before a real gem of a breakaway goal in the final minute of injury ensured the Reds are in the famed “hat” for the FA Cup 4th Round. Darwin Núñez carried the ball free from the Reds half before releasing a marauding Diogo Jota who’s eventual square pass released Luis Díaz and his rifled, emphatic finish into the near post top corner of the Arsenal net set a resounding seal on a more than fortuitous, but welcome, smash and grab victory.
Skipper Virgil van Dijk missing through illness.
Mo Salah and Wataru Endō away on national team duty.
Right back Joe Gomez continuing to play as an emergency left back.
20 year old Jarell Quansah outstanding next to an imperious Ibrahima Konaté.
20 year old Harvey Elliott and 22 year old Curtis Jones flanking Alexis Mac Allister in a makeshift midfield.
Luis Díaz has grown from boy to man since his long term injury and has never looked more physically imposing and in the form of his Reds career.
Darwin Núñez may not have scored but boy does chaos magic appear whenever he has the ball at his feet.
And only 2 senior professionals on the substitutes bench next to a bunch of kids, one of whom, Conor Bradley, was magnificent in his late cameo appearance.
The Reds may be top of the Premier League but they’re also in the FA Cup 4th Round and still in every competition they entered in August.
What a pleasing sentence that is to write as a sign off after every game.
A final word from The Boss
“The first half… it’s difficult to prepare for something that Arsenal did tonight, for the full 90 minutes pretty much I would say but especially in the first half, the different set-up with Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard more or less a double 10. It was a 4–2–2–2 with wingers wide, a massive threat. So, we had a few days’ time to prepare for this difficult game, obviously with a slightly different team, and then in the last second Virgil van Dijk couldn’t play. That didn’t help. Timing was bad in the first half for pressing, for pretty much everything in the first line. That makes it tricky for the midfield and nearly impossible for the last line. So we had to defend deeper and had to block balls and stuff like this, but that’s then football as well, then you have to show desire, passion, determination and these kinds of things, which the boys showed. And then we changed obviously as well quite a bit and that caused then Arsenal problems. That’s how football is”.
“We used now the information from the first half and tried to do better and did much better, everything was better. Then we created step by step, we were more in the game, we had our chances, we defended them better. And we felt more and more comfortable in that game and yeah, scored from a free-kick, an own goal, which obviously you cannot plan. We then had chances to score earlier but scored in the last second, which is fine as well and we are really happy. We all know cup competitions are not about being the better team, it’s about winning the game and we had in the second half much more good moments and deserved the next round. But of course we could have lost tonight as well, that’s clear”.