by Bulldog Drummond
Now here’s a sentence you don’t see everyday in the Evening Standard. Liverpool, we are told, are
Facing an Arsenal side in excellent form,
OK pause for a moment to pick yourself up off the floor, before we proceed to notice that the only problem with the little article is that although it is headlined “Liverpool XI vs Arsenal: Predicted lineup, confirmed team news and injuries for Premier League” there is not a single mention of the Arsenal line up.
Still, it is good to know that the Standard reckons there will only be eleven Liverpool players on the pitch. The way they avoid yellow cards while committing more fouls than Arsenal, suggests that half the time they can get away with anything.
The Independent online site is more helpful – although every time I try to log in, it claims it doesn’t know who I am. So no change there.
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;
Saka, Thomas, Lokonga, Smith Rowe;
Lacazette; Aubameyang
And would you believe it, Sports Mole comes up with exactly the same lineup!
The Hard Tackle fortunately does give us a bit of variety just as I was fearing this was going to be a very short article indeed.
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;
Lokonga, Maitland-Niles;
Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;
Lacazette
There has indeed been talk of Aubameyang not being well, and that attacking midfield might find a way around that Liverpool defence encouraged as always by the arrogance of a crowd that believes in their absolute god-given right to win.
Indeed so absolute is that right, that the SI website refuses to give us any teams but does tell us that despite this they are sure Liverpool will win 3-2.
It is looking a little as if Football.London has had enough of Untold Arsenal, as despite their having an article on the teams, we can’t get access to it.
And “This is Anfield” goes even further with the anti-Arsenal jollity, by giving us two Liverpool line ups but no Arsenal lineup. Well, I suppose that is one way of making sure you are going to win.
But the most screamingly funny assault comes from the Liverpool Offside website which under the headline “What the Managers Had to Say” has a comment by Jurgen Klopp complaining about international managers which is a sanitised version of Mr Wenger’s famous comparison of international managers with car thieves.
And then below the bit under the “Jurgen Klopp” headline there is a piece quoting “Other Manager”
Perhaps we should write in and tell them his name is “Arteta”.
Meanwhile back somewhere near planet Earth the Daily Canon offers the Independent line up from the top of this page – which means both Lacazette and Aubameyang playing.
Football Talk have the alternative version but with Auba up front…
Ramsdale;
Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;
Lokonga, Maitland-Niles;
Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;
Aubameyang
And that is about it. Most commentators reckon Arsenal will lose 2-1 – I am sure there are some around who think we will win, but I just don’t seem to be finding them amidst the search for possible line ups.
So there we have it. Jurgen Klopp vs Other Manager, with the Kloppites winning 2-1.
But let’s finish with the WhoScored top Arsenal pre-match ratings…
| Emile Smith Rowe | |
| Gabriel Magalhães | |
| Takehiro Tomiyasu |
- Liverpool v Arsenal. Do we stand a chance? Well, we did a while back…
- Liverpool v Arsenal – the injury count and how it affects our league position
- Arsenal 42% more likely to get yellow card today than Liverpool.
- Liverpool v Arsenal: how we have changed in just 12 games!
Watford v ManU time added on 3 minutes. At +2:50, Watford win a corner. Referee blows the whistle at 3:00 and doesn’t allow the corner to be taken. Curious.
But yet again Man Utd only committed 5 fouls for 3 yellow cards, 2 of them for Maguire resulting in a red.
Watford 7 for 2 cards.
Chelsea 8 for 1 card
Leicester 15 for 3 cards.
I’m no fan of any of these but it seems the trend to book United players at every opportunity continues, as does the leniency towards Chelsea.
As such the omens are not good for tonight.
In a recent Wenger and Dein interview. Dein was told after the extra minutes refs are shown, it is up to guess work from the ref to see how much time has passed.
As soon as they stop the high press they’re under pressure. It was working FFS.
Sadio Mané is quite a dirty player. His yellow card should have been issued much earlier.
No Var on the Mane elbow?
I am mostly comfortable with our defensive play, however, some of our forwards seem to get confused by the liverpool’s midfield runs in the middle third and that’s when we have problems. We end up with gaps that they exploit.
Still, all to play for and there will be openings in the Liverpool defence as they tire.
BTW, just what was Klopp going on about that got him his yellow?
Wow…Tavares may just have lost his spot. Can’t do things like that, son.
Mane has always been a dirty player. Today’s incidents not a surprise
some naive play on our part. Tavares has made at least 3 headshakingly poor giveaways…and that last counter should have been broken up with a professional foul. Liverpool has been doing that all game…our young players haven’t figured out that it is a business…get on with it.
Shambolic 2nd half. Lazy, careless play. I think they completed more passes to Liverpool than their teammates. Can’t win playing only half a game. I don’t want to hear about Mane, Oliver or anything else. It’s on them. I suggest they play every minute of both halves next match. It’s one match. Win the next.
Lokonga and Tavares gave the ball away 3 times each in dangerous positions in the first 6 minutes of the second half. I thought we had managed to almost eliminate these errors from our game, but apparently not. The Arsenal pressing was also poor today. I think the second half was our worst 45 minutes of the season so far.
Oliver wasn’t very good from an Arsenal point of view.
Apparently The Times reckon that Manchester United have decided to dismiss Solskjaer after an emergency board meeting tonight.
He’s gone.