Arsenal vs Liverpool: Instant Reaction

Well crap, let’s get into it.

Headline: The finishing is the story again unfortunately

As Arsenal racked up chance after chance in the opening periods I kept thinking to myself please don’t let not finishing these and losing on something fluky happen again.

Well, it played out exactly like that.

It is hard to spin this match as one where Arsenal did anything other than dominate Liverpool.

Shots 19 to 12, 13 to 2 in the first half.

Big Chances 4 to 1, 3 to 0 in the first half.

Touches in the box 51 to 26, 28 to 7 in the first half.

High starts from pressing 14 to 6, 8 to 4 in the first half.

This is most frustrating type of performance because the team played well. The things that looked broken last time against Fulham looked to have been tweaked and adjusted for.

Arteta didn’t ask Kiwior to play like an off brand Zinchenko, instead bringing in Jorginho to fulfill that role in a double pivot with Rice.

He didn’t go back to Nketiah as the guy leading the line and not being able to link and interchange with the wide players, instead bringing in Havertz and the chances flowed.

The defense played really well keeping a high-flying Liverpool quiet for long stretches, they didn’t get a chance over 10% until the 77th minute and their best chance was when Arsenal were pushing hard and got caught. It was Liverpool at their most impotent of the season.

I want there to be something wrong. I want something to yell and complain about when these types of losses happen and when there isn’t I just feel like I am in a weird frustrated state and hate this dumb game.

Obviously taking the chances that Arsenal had and turning them into this type of shot on target map is not good.

It really sucks but the crappy answer that won’t make anyone feel better and is probably the truth that the players just need to kick/head the ball better. Every player on Arsenal haven’t all forgotten how to kick the ball (I hope) but it does feel like it.

Going back to the Aston Villa match Arsenal have now taken 106 shots, they are worth 9.95 xG on my model, they have turned just 4 of them into goals. That is a pretty wild run of bad finishing.

It doesn’t change the results or give Arsenal bonus points or anything but this is just a very weird and dumb sport sometimes.

Stock Rising: Kai Havertz

This might make some people mad because a striker is supposed to score goals and well he didn’t here today.