Mikel Arteta is an avid student of high-performance culture, so it is impossible to believe that he’s never come across the following inspirational quote, usually attributed to Mark Twain:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines! Sail away from safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!”
In the tradition of internet nonsense, the quote was never actually said by Twain (though it’s nice to imagine him writing the words “Explore. Dream. Discover!”). Even still, the Arsenal coach could do with printing this one out and sticking it to his fridge.
As the Arsenal players made their way home last night from the 1-0 defeat in Liverpool, the thing that will have hurt them more than anything is that they never really gave it a go.
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Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Newcastle all scored twice against Liverpool by playing at a high tempo and getting the ball forward quickly and directly. Arsenal clearly had the options in their squad to cause similar problems by approaching the game in the same way.
Instead, they went the other way: what if we hardly moved the ball forward at all? What if we waited, and waited ... and waited, and every so often pushed the defenders up to attack a corner?
After a week of feverish Arsenal excitement over the signing of Eberechi Eze, Arteta left him on the bench. The coach went with a back four consisting of four central defenders behind three mainly defensive midfielders. The Rice-Merino-Zubimendi midfield combination was reminiscent of the “high-pressure triangle” favoured by José Mourinho in his anti-football doom spiral at Real Madrid.
Arteta justified that selection by saying that Martin Ødegaard was not fit to start the game. The idea of using Eze as a third midfielder to link midfield and attack did not seem to have occurred to him.
But William Saliba wasn’t fit to start the game either, having suffered an injury in the warm-up, and Arteta started him anyway. He lasted only four minutes, but that was long enough to tell us that in Arteta’s conception of this game, Ødegaard was dispensable while Saliba was not.
Arsenal’s strategy was evidently to quieten Anfield, and in this they were successful, as the teams played out one of the dullest first halves of the season.
Liverpool have scored in their last 37 Premier League matches in a row – a club record, though one that will not be extended much further if their attack keeps misfiring like this. Mohamed Salah was only sporadically involved and looked well below par, while Florian Wirtz again struggled to make himself relevant.
At times during his introduction to the Premier League, Wirtz has looked a man out of time and place, as though Liverpool had signed a wee Scottish gangster from the 1930s who lost half a lung to tuberculosis. He hasn’t yet managed 90 minutes in any game so far, his energy bar draining faster than a five-year-old iPhone.
With Alexis MacAllister, usually the oil in Liverpool’s engine, also having a poor game, the chance was there for Arsenal to take control. This, they stubbornly refused to do.
Instead, they maintained the usual iron control over their own attacking impulses. They patiently executed an endless series of five-a-sides in their own half against Liverpool’s ragged press, while displaying absolutely no urgency on the question of scoring a goal.
It was fitting that the best chance of the first half was created by David Raya passing the ball directly to Virgil van Dijk, who apparently had become so bored standing in midfield that he decided to run forward and press the Arsenal build-up.
Arsenal’s chances, such as they were, came from corners, most earned by Noni Madueke as he edged his running battle with Milos Kerkez. The most promising situation from open play, a four-on-four break, ended with Gabriel Martinelli, who led the breakaway, short-circuiting the move by dribbling out of play.
Seeing this, you wondered if Eze would come on for Martinelli at half-time. But no, Arteta stayed locked in their holding pattern, while Liverpool shifted it up.
One of the differences between Arne Slot and Arteta is that Slot will play an attacking midfielder, Dominik Szoboszlai, at right back, while Arteta would rather use a central defender. Szoboszlai rewarded Slot’s daring, emerging as the key difference-maker in the second half.
First, he popped up in the number 10 position to link a move that ended with Wirtz drawing a fine save from Raya, and Cody Gakpo being flagged offside as he followed it in. It didn’t count, but it woke up the home crowd. A few minutes later, Szoboszlai found Wirtz with a beautiful crossfield pass and the German created a good chance for Salah to waste.
With Ryan Gravenberch now dominating the midfield and Ibrahima Konate making easy work of Viktor Gyökeres, Liverpool’s confidence was growing. And when Zubimendi brought down Curtis Jones 30 yards from goal, there was no doubt that Szoboszlai would be the one to take it. He’ll take many more free-kicks for Liverpool after yesterday’s, but he might never hit a better one in his life.
Arsenal, desperate now, surged forward and created a few moments of panic. Too late: having come to keep it tight and win on a set-piece, they had kept it tight and lost on one.
“It’s Anfield, you cannot dominate here for 95 minutes, it’s impossible,” Arteta said afterwards. But couldn’t Arsenal have tried to dominate for 20 minutes or half an hour?
Watching their evolution over the last three seasons, it’s plain that Arteta prizes and tries to cultivate the qualities of strength, toughness and ruthlessness – but this display was not ruthless, just passive. A ruthless side would not have allowed Liverpool to play their way into the game.
Ultimately, Arsenal’s regrets can all be traced to the “first, do not lose” mentality of their coach. Leaving Eze on the bench. Waiting nearly 70 minutes to replace the ineffective Merino and Martinelli. Wasting half the game with rococo build-up patterns that don’t go anywhere and elaborate corner-kick routines that kill your momentum. Every team has its limitations, but you’d rather they didn’t feel self-imposed.
