• Manager says only positive for Gunners were the fans
• Promises to bounce back against Manchester United
Arsène Wenger accepted a share of the blame as his Premier Leagueleaders were humbled 5-1 at Anfield, admitting Arsenal were poor and promising to repair the damage on Wednesday against Manchester United.
"Our overall performance was poor, our defensive stability was poor and we needed to be better focused," the Arsenal manager said. "Congratulations to Liverpool, they were the best team. Only the Arsenal fans were superb today [the away section in the Anfield Road end kept up a commendable level of vocal support throughout], that was all."
Wenger's concerns will have deepened since an Eden Hazard hat-trick meant Chelsea brushed Arsenal from the top of the table by beating Newcastle 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. But Manchester City, who started the day in second place and could have gone top, slipped to third after failing to find the net for the second successive game, in a 0-0 draw at Norwich.
Yet Wenger insisted his team can still win the title, though he emphasised that dramatic improvement would be necessary with a testing run of games this month. After United in the league in midweek, Arsenal face Liverpool in the FA Cup, then Bayern Munich, the holders, in the Champions League.
"The performance was just not good enough, and I include myself in that performance," he said. "It raises questions that we have to answer, we have a lot to answer for, though maybe it is best if I don't talk too much about what went wrong here and we just go home and put things right on the pitch on Wednesday.
"We didn't look sharp against Liverpool but it's how we respond that matters. We have a chance to show we can make an improvement in the next game and it is important we do not lose all our confidence and self-belief."
As might be expected, confidence and self-belief are coursing through the Liverpool side after emphatic victories in successive home games against their Merseyside rivals and now the league leaders.
"We were brilliant, wonderful," Brendan Rodgers said, without fear of accusations of exaggeration. "It wasn't just the result, the performance was out of this world. That was an experienced team we were up against, the team at the top of the league. These games are normally tight, but I thought we could have scored more."
That is not an exaggeration either. Boosted by opening the scoring after 53 seconds, Liverpool raced to a 4-0 half-time lead despite managing to miss several inviting opportunities before the interval. Arsenal could not have complained had they lost by six or seven, yet Rodgers still feels there is too much ground to be made up to talk of Liverpool as title contenders.
"We just want to finish as high as we possibly can," the Liverpool manager said. "There are three teams ahead of us, and you only have to look at the depth of the squads we are up against to see how hard it is going to be. Just look at the strength of the Arsenal bench today, compared to our own.
"We intend to challenge for the title in time, but we are still getting to that position at the moment. We put down another marker today. It was an outstanding performance, but we have had a few of those this season."
Rodgers could claim some of the credit for stifling Arsenal tactically, switching Luis Suárez to the right wing to run at Nacho Monreal, using Raheem Sterling on the left to tie up Bacary Sagna, deploying Daniel Sturridge through the middle where his pace made the visitors' centre-backs nervous and, perhaps most crucially, having Philippe Coutinho orchestrate events from midfield.
"Philippe was the key for us, he presses well and uses the ball well," Rodgers said. "Daniel gave us penetration through the middle, Luis did a selfless job for the team on the right, and Raheem was fantastic on the left. It's incredible that Raheem is only 19. I don't think there's a better winger in England right now."
Guardian UK
Download National Dialogue Committee's Reports (in PDF)Get breaking news on BBM - add our PIN - 232FC0E9
Follow on Twitter to receive updates every hour
Don't miss the next news item - LIKE our Facebook page
No comments:
Post a Comment