As You Were

Did we really learn anything from Liverpool's clash against Arsenal?

So going into this weekend, I was eager to make the story about Liverpool’s press. Last week, it didn’t really work against Chelsea. And against RB Leipzig three days later, Arne Slot fixed it, opting for 4-1-4-1 rather than his customary 4-2-4.

If you’re out of the loop regarding all that stuff, check the video below.

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So what happened at the Emirates? Well, Slot made the surprise decision to revert back to his original 4-2-4 press. It was definitely better this time around, but once again, we did experience some issues.

Let’s take a glance at Bukayo Saka’s opening goal. Arsenal tend to play with two false nines in Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard. They dovetail as a front two, and they both drop deeper.

Their behavior had an impact — albeit a relatively minor one — on Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté for Saka’s goal. Ben White wasn’t under pressure, Liverpool’s defensive line was high, and Van Dijk was thinking about pushing into midfield because of Havertz’s tendency to roam, shown below.

The end product of that dynamic was a perfectly executed goal, but if you’re Liverpool, you need to put White under more pressure. And if you’re Van Dijk, you probably need to help Andy Robertson a bit more by almost ignoring Havertz.

The German in particular did an impression of Cole Palmer at times, drifting out wide from his central spot and dragging one of Slot’s two midfielders with him, thus opening up space around Ryan Gravenberch for Trossard to use, shown below.

That sort of thing surrounding our double pivot has happened twice in seven days now. It’s worth keeping an eye on, with Gravenberch often presented with three players to think about as his partner gets dragged towards the flanks.

It’s not great, but all of the early-season shouts from your friendly neighbourhood tactico suggested that better teams would kill Liverpool using that tactical overload in the middle of the field. Well, we’ve faced Arsenal and Chelsea now. We beat RB Leipzig and AC Milan recently, too. Who else have you got?

Sometimes, you can benefit from looking in the mirror and realising your structural weaknesses. Liverpool have been taught a few tactical lessons against Arsenal and Chelsea over the past week, but without losing either game, which is nice.

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But despite all of the tactical stuff regarding building the game and pressing high, other elements decided this match. Arsenal and Liverpool both scored from set-pieces, for example.

Moreover, the two defenders who started for the Gunners on Mohamed Salah’s side of the field — Gabriel Magalhães and Jurrien Timber — ended up being substituted due to injuries.

Shortly after they departed, the Egyptian talisman scored the final goal of the game, combining with Darwin Núñez and Trent Alexander-Arnold down that same flank that Gabriel and Timber had previously marshalled.

Mikel Arteta has lovely hair. He should never tear it out. But he must’ve been close when Salah scored that crucial equaliser. The superstar bout ended 2-2 after 90 minutes. That’ll do.

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Overall, although Liverpool didn’t play that well, I think I feel more confident of a title charge now than I did before the match. A draw was fair. We’re going to be right there until the end.

This was away from home against a 89-point team after a midweek away trip to Germany. It involved coming back from going behind twice. Nine shots for them, nine for us. Two big chances for them, two for us. 33 touches in the box for them, 27 for us. 0.9 xG for them, 0.8 for us. Just a pair of title contenders having a go at each other.

We thought we’d learn a lot from this one. Maybe Liverpool will finally get tested against a proper team? Maybe Slot will change the make-up of his press? Maybe Arsenal will dismantle Liverpool’s tactics?

But no. Instead, we found out very little in terms of new information. We’re even. A pair of kings. Nothing has changed. As you were. And I’m cool with that.