I don’t have a lot of time for Mikel Arteta as a manager. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than aware that this could bite me on the arse and the Gunners could end up as Premier League champions come the end of the season, but my instinct is that the Spaniard would have to change his entire way of thinking for that to happen. Like countless managers before him, the former Arsenal and Everton player puts not losing at the forefront of his thinking, rather than actively trying to win. It was clear in his tactics at Anfield yesterday, where his players turned up to take as much time out of the game as possible and only really seemed to come alive when they won a set-piece. It seems as though the entire thing is a long-term experiment to see whether managers like Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis would, as they claim, have won a trophy if they’d been given huge amounts of money to spend. The idea of a team full of exciting attacking players being set-pieces FC is one that I find quite depressing.
As much as I love Arteta that result is on him. Negative backwards football. Arsenal need to be braver. They won’t win anything with this attitude. Champions seize the moment and it was there for Arsenal. Liverpool looked nervous in first half but we didn’t sense it. They need to change this!
— nornirongooner.bsky.social (@nornirongooner.bsky.social) 31 August 2025 at 18:32
Yes, they were missing Bukayo Saka. Sure, Martin Ødegaard wasn’t fully fit. Ok, Eberechi Eze had only just arrived at the club. Yet there was never any suggestion that Arteta was toying with the idea of taking the handbrake off and having a real go at Liverpool. As Andrew Beasley pointed out on BlueSky, all of Arsenal’s open play shots were blocked by the Reds. They never once looked like testing Alisson Becker in any meaningful way, with Arsenal supporters left celebrating the winning of a free-kick or corner like Evertonians do. Get a dead ball, lump it into the box and see how the cookie crumbles. Where are the attacking plays? What are the movements from your forwards, aside from asking Noni Madueke to run at Milos Kerkez and hope for the best? These are the questions I’d be asking today, if I supported the Gunners. It is the negative mindset of the manager that has been holding them back, so the only question that matters is whether or not he can shake it moving forward.
A Defensively Sound Display
I don’t think Liverpool were at their best against Arsenal. The Gunners had the best of the first-half action, even if they didn’t really trouble our goal in any meaningful way. A lot of that was down to misplaced passes from us in the final third, with the attacking unit still not clicking as well as many of us would’ve liked. A big part of that might be down to Florian Wirtz not having found his feet yet, but I think we can all forgive him that given the difficult start we’ve had to the season. Heading into the game, though, I was convinced that ‘Both Teams to Score’ was a sensible bet to be placing, given how poor we’ve been defensively in the two matches prior to this one. Both Bournemouth and Saudi Arabian-owned Newcastle United were essentially able to cut through us at will at times, whilst we looked poor at set-pieces in the two of those games as well as in our pre-season matches. I was really impressed, therefore, with just how solid we looked defensively in this game.
Liverpool defence was very good today. And Szoboszlai performance was exceptional and his free kick was jaw dropping, great result. #LFC #YNWA
— merseymark.bsky.social (@merseymark.bsky.social) 31 August 2025 at 19:32
Given the fact that Arteta’s Arsenal have basically been Set Pieces FC throughout his tenure, to the point that their supporters made a mural for the set-pieces coach, I had major concerns that they’d be able to cause us problems. Instead, we looked solid throughout and, as was the case last season, actually scored against them from a set-piece. When you bear in mind that the manager didn’t have the longest period of time to work together with his attacking players, it is perhaps not all that surprising that we didn’t look at our scintillating best when we worked to ensure that we were solid at the back. We lost the balance a little bit, but we sit three wins from three after a tough start to the season, ensuring that we’ve had an impact on our likeliest title rivals in one of the two games that we can directly influence them in. Leaving Anfield with all three points was a must, but the fact that we did it with such a solid defensive performance and found a way to win was what excites me the most.
Alexander Isak Now Has to Prove His Critics Wrong
If we were all being honest with ourselves, the way Alexander Isak has behaved this summer isn’t great. As much as we’ve all loved it and will undoubtedly find ways to justify it, we would have been appalled if that was how one of our players behaved to force a move out of the club this summer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware that promises were made to him be previous employees of the club and he felt let down, but if in three years time he decides to down tools in order to try to force through a move to Real Madrid, we’d all be frothing at the mouth in anger. I have little to no sympathy for the majority of Newcastle United supporters, of course. Most of them have bent over backwards to excuse the fact that the club has been bought by a murderous, oppressive regime in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, comparing apples to oranges in a bid to allow them to sleep at night. Only a select few have actively chosen to campaign against the ownership, so only a select few have my respect and my sympathy.
As widely reported, #LFC have tonight agreed a £125m deal for Alexander Isak. Sweden international now cleared for a Monday medical ahead of British-record move from Newcastle. The end to the summer-long saga is in sight. A huge statement from the Premier League champions.
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst.bsky.social) 1 September 2025 at 00:45
For Isak, the talking is now over. What comes next is a need to ensure that he can throw any and all criticism of his behaviour back in the faces of those who are quick to judge. It isn’t exactly outrageous to imagine a world in which he is booed at grounds up and down the country, not just at St James’ Park. Reading various Reddit threads, it is clear that fans of other teams in the top-flight don’t like what he’s done, which is then compounded by the general LIVERPOOL=BAD thing that we’ve all grown far too used to in recent years. What Isak needs to do is to turn up at Anfield and score and assist goals as much as he possibly can. Liverpool are in a position whereby there is an expectation that they should win at least one of the two biggest trophies in world football come the end of the season, which Isak can be a big help in. He has already become a Kop favourite merely by being a brilliant player who has shown how desperate he is to play for us, but now he needs to prove it on the pitch.
