Arsenal’s cautious, cagey, risk-averse approach showed a lack of adventure and they paid the price against Liverpool
You can get it if you really want. You really can. You can get it. Getting it is a distinct and achievable outcome. There is just one caveat. You do have to actually show some sign of wanting to get it, to throw a little risk to the wind.
This seemed to be the catch for Mikel Arteta at Anfield, on a day where for long periods his Arsenal team were in the ascendancy, dishing up a performance that was assured and compact, but also a bit like watching a politician giving a campaign interview on live TV where the idea is to simply say nothing, wear the right tie, filibuster, convinced that if nothing happens then good things are probably happening. This felt like a kind of high-end Starmer-ball. Hold the line. Let the other guy lose.
From the start Arsenal played in a way that said, well, it’s going to take something special to beat us today. The only problem with this is that quite often something special actually does happen. There is an irony in the fact a game of poker‑faced sideways manoeuvring was decided by the most brutally direct of moments.
Or perhaps not irony. This was simply good sense and a case of seizing your moment when it arrives. Dominik Szoboszlai’s execution for the only goal of the game was stunning, beautifully pure and also notable for its blatant lack of disguise.
