Arsenal promised a jump start to this season - but they have stuttered

Frustrating night: Sanchez hit the woodwork on a night when Arsenal drew a blank
James Olley25 August 2015

What happened to the fast start? Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal players spent all of pre-season hammering home the message that they would hit the ground running to banish past mistakes.

Wenger developed a narrative publicly supported by his squad explaining that the Gunners would have won the Premier League last season had they secured more than four wins from their opening 12 games.

The Frenchman blamed the extended recovery required by two of his three World Cup winners — Germany duo Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil — and insisted no changes were required to their preparations this time around.

Yet here we are, three games into a new season and Wenger is readily admitting “we lacked a bit physically”, “our game is still not fluent enough in the final third” and “the sharpness is missing a little bit in some players”.

Any side can stutter out of the blocks and three games is utterly insufficient to consign a title bid to the rubbish bin but to admit such fundamental flaws when you have played up the importance of starting well seems hypocritical at best and downright negligent at worst.

This was not a dismal performance, although it threatened to plumb those depths during a first half in which Arsenal regularly attempted to orchestrate their own downfall with errant, wasteful passing.

Arsenal vs Liverpool - player ratings

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For all Liverpool’s first-half dominance, Arsenal responded strongly after the interval. The home side had three shots in the opening 45 minutes to Liverpool’s 11. After the break, the Gunners amassed 16 to Liverpool’s four.

Arsenal’s defensive frailties can be excused given the loss of regular centre-backs Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny to illness and injury respectively — the first time both have been absent in a League game since April 2012.

But the lack of fizz in the final third is more concerning. Wenger is genuine in his belief that with eight days to go, there is nobody available in the transfer market who can improve his attacking options.

If that is true, then they need to find top form quickly or develop greater ingenuity as Simon Mignolet was not forced into anything like the calibre of save that Petr Cech produced on two occasions, firstly from Christian Benteke’s point-blank effort and then in tipping Philippe Coutinho’s sumptuous curling strike onto the post.

Brendan Rodgers said exactly what Liverpool would do in the build-up to this fixture and he proved true to his word. Liverpool pressed the ball well in central areas, heightening the uncertainty in Arsenal’s makeshift defence and attacking with speed and precision prior to the break.

The Gunners had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside in the opening 10 minutes — Martin Skrtel clearly played Aaron Ramsey onside before the Welshman finished smartly — but the balance of play had Liverpool unfortunate not to be ahead at the interval.

And even in the second-half fightback, Arsenal were unable to pick their way through Liverpool’s compact defence with anything like the regularity expected of a Wenger side firing at their best.

Rodgers’s team defended the width of the 18-yard box and compressed the space in between midfield and defence, as West Ham did on the opening weekend and many, many sides have done against Arsenal in recent seasons.

There was nothing new in the conundrum but Arsenal still looked flummoxed. Even taking into account a curious set of results that has seen just six home wins from 30 Premier League matches so far this season, the Gunners have questions to answer in front of their own supporters. This was the fifth time in sixth matches they have failed to score in a League match at the Emirates.

Liverpool defended superbly — Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren catching the eye in particular — but Arsenal harbour genuine title aspirations this season and yet they are threatening another slow start. The Gunners took nine points from corresponding fixtures against West Ham, Crystal Palace and Liverpool last year.

The good news is, of course, there is still plenty of time. Chelsea sit on the same number of points and they will be confident of recovering to fight Manchester City and the rest but the conviction in that belief is deepened by a flurry of transfer activity continuing with Pedro and perhaps ending with John Stones’s arrival from Everton.

Karim Benzema’s public declaration of love for Real Madrid ends any lingering hope for Wenger over a deal but the inactivity is only compounding the frustration over this under-performance when a strong start was demanded.

Something has to change, whether triggered from within or through further additions because Arsenal can ill afford to give their rivals a big head start. But then they know that already.

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