FOR the first time in what seems like a long time, Liverpool travelled to London with realistic hopes of getting a result at the Emirates.
Two points off first place after nine games, sitting comfortably inside the elusive top four – all this without really playing to their potential, apart from the game against West Bromwich Albion.
Even the media had started to buy into it; with Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge up front and on fire, nothing seemed impossible for the Reds.
A small part of the foreign media even suggested Arsenal v Liverpool as a potential title match, which obviously was as hideously premature as it sounds. You can always count on them for sobriety, eh…
I have heard and read many people talking about the game at the Emirates as an ‘acid test’, and that Liverpool failing the test served as a reality check regarding where the team stand. But what did the performance and result show that we didn’t already know though?
For me the answer is: Absolutely nothing. Liverpool FC is a club on the rise; with a promising team still in a transitional process squad-wise, capable of beating any team in the league on a given day. This wasn’t that day, but does it really change anything? To me it doesn’t change anything any more or less than if Arsenal fail to get a result at Old Trafford this weekend.
Sometimes I think we as fans are guilty of not recognising the fact that our team isn’t the only team capable of improving. That includes yours truly, by the way.
‘If we sign player x and y, flip the triangle and use player z more advanced – we’ll definitely have a shot at challenging.’
Sounds familiar? It doesn’t fully take into account that other teams are strengthening and evolving though, and I feel that’s partly what we as fans probably were guilty of ahead of last weekend’s game. Expectations and hope go hand in hand, and both were higher than they have been for a long time ahead of an away fixture against a top team. Hence the disappointment and talks of a reality check.
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
At the end of the day it’s about three points or not. Getting outsmarted in the dugout, not performing on the pitch and not getting the points doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than not being good enough that given day. And we knew the chances of it happening were fairly big, given how Wenger’s men have been performing this season and the end of last season. Their performance against Napoli in the Champions League, and also their great result away to Dortmund, suggests that this season’s version of Arsenal is a seriously good one.
We knew there were issues in the team that needs sorting the next couple of windows – issues that were highlighted due to various reasons against Arsenal. First of all it showed that the team isn’t yet tactically mature enough to handle an opponent with that type of talent in the middle of the park, and also that the 3-5-2 system isn’t as defensively solid as the 4-4-2 we saw at the early stages of the season.
But in reality this doesn’t change anything at all. LFC’s results away against the top teams isn’t the bench mark of improvement for me. It’s about consistently performing against and beating the teams we are supposed to beat, and ultimately end up with more points than last season.
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
In terms of beating the lower teams , we seem to have it sorted.
Weaker teams cant handle Suarez and coutinho , especially at anfield.so that is one area where we have really improved.
…but , we cant be really competitive or win trophies until we can handle and beat the big boys consistantly. That’s where a huge club like Liverpool should be , beating the best .
Talking of expection being high,yes we as fans have the exclusive right to be expectant and rightly so, but disapointed with the performance,it was a completely flat team performance.They was nothing to takeaway from the match for us except for the return of coutinho.Hence the disapointment was as a result of the performance and not the matchday result.
I would not agree with you on the “there was nothing to takeaway from the match except the return of countinho”. As bad as we were and we were bad, it was not arsenal that made us look bad it was us, and even then we had more clear goal scoring chances and we had the better ones as well. We have nothing to fear from arsenal or any other team in the league.
No sheep clueless as always
We did not have more clear cut chances you clown. It’s just you being your usual blinkered and idiotic self that imagines it. I guess that’s why everyone calls you deluded on here .
A nice sensible article.
People banging on about beating the big teams but in the first few matches of Rodgers regime we were a Skrtel back pass away from beating Man City.
Although it wouldn’t have mattered much as then it would have been ‘ apart from City, we haven’t beat the big teams’
Alot of people love moving the goalposts so outside of winning everything we can, in the minds of some, Rodgers will never ever be good enough…
I say judge him after two or three years, Houllier asked for five years and got it.
People want Rodgers dead within two years, I dont get it.
But hey, that’s the beauty of being a supporter in love with the beautiful game.
Still trolling u total half-wit.
Jay. Are you falling in love with me or something? You only respond to my posts, I’m soo flattered.
Where do you live I’ll send you thank you flowers BIG KISS XX
Idiot
I still think that the only mistake was to set the team up in a 3 5 2 formation against Arsenal. Missing out on Jose and Glen on the wings meant we were short on necessary depth and experience from the start.
4 4 2 would have been the ideal from the start of the game and then maybe change half time.
But I like the no nonsence approach BR has and I agree with him that even though we lost the game we should have had something from it, couse we had pleanty of chances.
I still like what I see and belive that we are getting stronger step by step after every match.