stunner heap misery on Arsene Wenger's men in north London thriller
Theo Walcott's had his 28th minute penalty saved after a foul from left back Alberto Moreno
However Walcott struck the opener from the right side of the box into the far corner on 31 minutes
Philippe Coutinho whipped in a stunning 25 yard freekick to equalise in first half stoppage time
Liverpool took the lead early in the second half when Adam Lallana capped a flowing team move
Coutinho volleyed in his second on 56 minutes and Sadio Mane then cracked in a superb solo goal
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers struck two for the Gunners in response
In the summer sunshine of the Emirates Stadium, an afternoon of utterly beautiful chaos.
The miserable facts for Arsenal manager are that his team lost at home on opening day of the Premier League season for the third time in four years. That is all that will consume the Frenchman on Sunday night after an afternoon that threatened to descend in to open supporter rebellion as Liverpool scored four times in sixteen incredible minutes in north London.
From 4-1 down – they had led in the first half – Arsenal managed to make a game, a crazy game, of it by scoring the game’s final two goals. To lose by the odd goal in seven represented something of an achievement given the state they were in with less than half an hour left. It perhaps saved Wenger from a savaging at full-time.
MATCH FACTS, RATINGS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Cech 5.5; Bellerin 5.5, Holding 5, Chambers 5, Monreal 5.5; Elneny 6 (Xhaka 67, 6.5), Coquelin 6; Walcott 7.5, Ramsey 7.5 (Cazorla 60, 7), Iwobi 7, (Oxlade-Chamberlain 58, 7); Sanchez 6.5Subs not used: Gibbs, Wilshere, Ospina, Akpom
- Goal: Walcott 31, Oxlade-Chamberlain 64, Chambers 75
- Booked: Coquelin, Iwobi, Xhaka
Liverpool (4-3-3): Mignolet 7; Clyne 7, Lovren 6.5, Klavan 6.5, Moreno 4.5; Lallana 8 (Origi 75, 6), Henderson 7, Wijnaldum 7 (Stewart 88, 6); Mane 8.5, Coutinho 8 (Can 70, 6), Firmino 7.5
- Subs not used: Manninger, Grujic, Matip, Alexander-Arnold
- Goals: Coutinho 45+1 and 56, Lallana 49, Mane 63
- Booked: Lallana, Moreno, Lovren
- Ref: Michael Oliver
- MOM: Mane
- Att: 60,033
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This, though, was helter skelter football from both teams. Neither were able to close the game down once they were in control of it and that may yet prove portentous for clubs that lacked consistency last time around.
Liverpool won the game and will skip north up the M1 with a smile. They will talk about this for a while.
But for Jurgen Klopp and his players, too, there was almost as much to worry about as there was to enjoy on a day that saw Liverpool swing from the sublime to the utterly preposterous.
The bare facts are that Arsenal – fielding a central defensive partnership of Calum Chambers and 20-year-old debutant Rob Holding – controlled the first half and led through a Theo Walcott goal that came only minute after the same player had missed a penalty.
Two minutes in to added time, Arsenal remained in control. But a free-kick goal from Philippe Coutinho changed everything and Liverpool emerged for the second half to tear Arsenal apart. As Wenger’s team collapsed, Liverpool surged through them, scoring through Adam Lallana, Coutinho again and then Saido Mane. All four of the Liverpool goals were superb in their own way.
As Liverpool celebrated their final goal with Klopp, there seemed no way back for Arsenal. Wenger, motionless on the bench, was getting it from all sides. But just as it was about to get very ugly indeed, Arsenal somehow found some form of retaliation and when Chambers’ header followed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal to make it 4-3 there was still fifteen minutes of the second period left to play.
In the end Arsenal couldn’t complete their comeback and there will be a minority of Arsenal supporters who won’t mind too much. They belong to the faction that believe Wenger should walk. One game in to the new season and his players are not helping and that seems very strange indeed considering the way the afternoon had started.
With Arsenal fielding such a young central defensive pairing, Klopp no doubt instructed his own players to begin with a tempo and place Holding and Chambers under as much pressure as possible. As it happened, it was Arsenal who started the brighter and they were the only team in the game early on.
In the opening stages, most of Arsenal’s best work came down their right side where Liverpool’s left-back Alberto Moreno looked uncomfortable. That set the tone for the rest of the first half.
Walcott was actually the first player to exploit the weakness, drifting wide to provide the overlapping Hector Bellerin with the chance to cross. On this occasion the ball was over hit and drifted out of play at the far post but Liverpool had been warned.
Liverpool were also boasting a new central defensive partnership, with the Estonian Ragner Klaven playing alongside Dejan Lovren. There seemed to be a few teething problems, as you may expect, and only eight minutes had passed when Alexis Sanchez teed up Aaron Ramsey inside the penalty area and Mignolet saved a first time shot that arrived from the outside of the Welshman’s right foot.
At this stage Liverpool just weren’t in the game. Klopp’s team were struggling for meaningful possession and as a result couldn’t get players like new signing Mane in the game at all.
One neat passing move featuring Lallana, Countinho and Jordan Henderson did allow the breaking Nathaniel Clyne to work Peter Cech in the Arsenal goal in the 13th minute but at that stage it was an isolated moment of fluency from the visiting team.
Much more meaningful was a moment at the other end soon after that saw a mistake by Klaven present the ball to Ramsey ten yards out. On this occasion Moreno was alert and was able to tackle the Arsenal midfielder as he attempted to get his shot away.
With Arsenal not able to turn their early thrusts in to clear chances or goals, Liverpool were able to find a way in to the game. One run across field from the right by Mane served notice of the former Southampton player’s threat while Firmino saw a shot blocked after fellow Brazilian Coutinho set him up cleverly.
As the half an hour mark came and went, Klopp may have been sitting a little more comfortably. But if he was, a reminder of his team’s issues soon struck him between the eyes.
His team were simply not coping when Arsenal broke on them through the middle. Lallana was booked for one clumsy hack at Ramsey while Lovren was similarly cautioned for hauling down Sanchez just before half-time.
Before then, however, Moreno contributed two aberrations that appeared to turn the game Arsenal’s way.
The first was a clumsy tackle on Walcott inside the penalty area in the 31st minute. It seemed as though the Spaniard may have laid a foot on the ball but replays told otherwise and it was a risky challenge anyway in a position that required vigilance rather than intervention.
Referee Michael Oliver awarded a penalty and though Mignolet dived smartly to his right to save Walcott’s kick it was only a minute or so before the Arsenal forward scored from an altogether more difficult position.
Again Moreno was culpable, this time for being caught out of position as Walcott ran on to a pass from Alex Iwobi. Walcott had much to do when he received the ball on the right but his low shot across Mignolet was struck well and beat the Belgian low in to the corner.
Only half an hour or so in to the new season and already Moreno’s stock was plummeting. All he could do was hold on and hope that his team’s attacking players got him out of jail.
It didn’t really look like happening as half-time approached. Certainly there had been little in Liverpool’s attacking play to worry young Holding. But the 20-year-old made the mistake of laying the lightest of hands on Coutinho in added time and was made to rue his mistake.
Referee Oliver was quite clear in explaining his decision to Arsenal’s protesting players. Maybe they knew what was coming. Coutinho was fully 30 yards out as he stood over the free kick but a stroke of the right foot sent the ball high over the wall and in to the top corner as Cech leaped across his goal in vain.
Arsenal would have felt disappointed at half-time. Wenger’s team had been the better side for most of the opening period. But within eleven minutes of the second half starting, Arsenal had all but fallen apart.
Certainly Liverpool looked much more like a Klopp team after the break. They began to press quickly and move the ball quickly. In many ways, they were transformed and, remarkably, so Arsenal were too, only the other way round.
As Liverpool upped the tempo and began to play with confidence, Arsenal couldn’t cope.
Lallana’s goal arrived just two minutes in to the second half. It was beautifully created by Georginio Wijnaldum’s chip across goal and even more adroitly taken by Lallana, screwing a low shot back across goal with admirable poise.
It seemed remarkable that Liverpool were ahead. For so long it had been Klopp’s team that had struggled for rhythm. But suddenly they were rampant and their third and fourth goals, arriving in the 56th and 63rd minutes, were symptomatic of the way the game had turned.
Mane cut inside to unleash an unstoppable drive past Cech to send Liverpool 4-1 in front in north LondonCoutinho’s second goal of the game was a beauty. Clyne ran hard at Nacho Monreal down the right and beat him to the byline to produce a low cross that the Brazilian volleyed in from six yards. A minute later Firmino set him up again from a similar position but this time Cech was able to save.
By now the Emirates was simmering. The murmurings of irritation that has been audible at half-time had been turned up to high by Liverpool’s goals and the target was Wenger.
Arsenal badly needed to settle, to grab hold of something, but they couldn’t. Mane was the next scorer, cutting in from the right past Chambers and driving a brilliant rising shot across Cech and into the top corner with his left foot.
As Klopp celebrated by offering his new signing a piggy back, all Wenger could hear was abuse and by now it was getting nasty. A man holding a placard asking: ‘Where has Our Money Gone?’ was spoken to by stewards behind the away dug out and this intervention only served to increase the anger of those seated further back.
Indeed, such was the bedlam that many Arsenal will not have noticed Oxlade-Chamberlain – on as a substitute for the injured Ramsey – wriggling through to pull a goal back with a deflected shot.
At this stage, there were still 25 minutes left and technically Arsenal were still in it. Liverpool had scored four times in sixteen crazy minutes but Klopp’s team didn’t look wholly solid as Arsenal found a little fresh life and tried to assert themselves with some football again.
Klopp did his bit by sending on Emre Can to try and ensure Liverpool did not concede again and it was a sensible move. The only problem was that it didn’t work. With 15 minutes still to play, Arsenal won a free-kick on the left and when Santi Cazorla swung in a straight forward free-kick Chambers rose above Klaven to glance a header past Mignolet.
A draw was perhaps the most likely result at this stage. It would have been about right, too. But Arsenal couldn’t muster a fourth and when Cazorla smacked a shot in to the backside of a team mate in added time to spurn his team’s last chance, it seemed somehow fitting.
