2 – Experience Doesn’t Mean Consistency
In a game where all of the talk was about the mentality of two Arsenal youngsters who were thrown into this one, the finger should be pointed at some more familiar faces.
I have to pick out the likes of Nacho Monreal and Petr Cech, two players that you wouldn’t expect to be making big mistakes that cost us a game.
We singled out Saido Mane and Nathaniel Clyne to be dangerous and that’s exactly what they were down the right hand side of midfield thanks to the complacency of Monreal.
The Spaniard was in line to play centre back in Gabriel’s absence, and it looked as if he thought that’s where he was starting after leaving so many gaps at full-back.
Look back at the highlights and you’ll notice other than the free-kick, each of Liverpool’s goals were taken from play down the right hand side of the pitch, all attacking Monreal.
You’d very rarely call him out for having a bad game due to the consistent form he showed us in 2015/16 but this was a completely different player.
Maybe it was because he was trying to keep an eye on Chambers and Holding, but he has to learn that they need to hold their own when it comes to games like this.
Nobody should be pointing the finger at Holding, you can’t expect a guy who’s just moved from a relegated Championship side to perform 100% in a game that had so much expectation.
Rarely criticised because of his legacy, Cech was also in line to receive some blame. I was at the game, and it wasn’t the commanding goalkeeper we all know.
Arsenal never really got going after the second half, and that’s down to players that have seen these situations time and time again, but Cech’s head dropped after Coutinho bagged that free-kick.
