Were Arsenal fans excited about the return of Alexis Sánchez? Yes. Were they dismayed when it turned out to be at the expense of Alexandre Lacazette? You bet. Much had been written and said about the performance of Liverpool’s front three after the performance against Hoffenheim in midweek. Here was Arsène Wenger’s chance to fight fire with fire by selecting a fairly nifty front three of his own. Yet instead of going for the obvious option, not to mention the strongest, the ever quirky Arsenal manager chose to bench his new record signing and give Danny Welbeck a game.
It was soon easy to see which front three was going to be busiest, with Mohamed Salah forcing an early save from Petr Cech, Sadio Mané fizzing around like a firework on the left and Roberto Firmino putting his side ahead when Arsenal lost the ball on halfway. Had Jordan Henderson managed to put the ball in the net rather than narrowly wide after dispossessing a dozing Mezut Özil, the German’s savaging at the hands of past and present Liverpool captains this week would have been complete. But Arsenal survived that scare and might have made it to the interval without further damage until Joe Gomez made his second telling interception of the afternoon.
Arsenal were not doing too much wrong at that point but Gomez easily read Sánchez’s intended pass to Héctor Bellerin in the Liverpool penalty area, and from then on it was the speed with which the home side advanced into the spaces Arsenal had left that impressed. The ball was over the halfway line in no time and once Firmino found Mané with room on the left to run into there was only going to be one outcome.
That was essentially the story of Arsenal’s afternoon. Their three-man back line was under pressure all the time because Liverpool had the numbers in midfield. There was no way Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka could stem the red tide; in fact both Arsenal midfielders had experiences they would prefer to forget. Xhaka found himself passing the ball out of play for a corner because he had nowhere else to turn when Salah closed him down in his own area while Ramsey, who was replaced at half-time, suffered the indignity of being stood up and beaten by Georginio Wijnaldum twice in quick succession.
Welbeck struggled to get into the game up front after putting an early half chance over the bar, but so did Özil and Sánchez. Arsenal’s front men found themselves isolated whereas Liverpool’s were constantly supplied by Emre Can, Henderson and Wijnaldum. Clearly Liverpool’s job was made easier in the second half by Arsenal’s need to take risks and chase the game, though that does not explain why the visitors were so regularly caught in possession by determined home runners relentlessly closing them down. A pattern was already emerging in the second half before Héctor Bellerín realised too late on halfway that Salah was not going to allow him as much time on the ball as he required. Nacho Monreal had already coughed up the ball to Salah in the same way, obliging Cech to come to his rescue with a save, and even before the third goal Rob Holding and Sánchez had been similarly pickpocketed.
Once Salah took maximum advantage of having an empty half to run into, Sánchez adopted his now familiar “beam me up” pose, and when Wenger took a step into his technical area there were a few boos from travelling supporters in the Anfield Road end. The manager did manage to send on Lacazette and Olivier Giroud for the last half hour but, as Sánchez was one of the players withdrawn, Arsenal followers have still not seen their ideal front three in action. If Manchester City get their way before the end of the transfer window perhaps they never will.
The only conclusion to be drawn from this game is that Arsenal are going to find it difficult to regain their Champions League status and Liverpool taking their place last season was no fluke. Jürgen Klopp was highly complimentary to Wenger’s side before the game, pointing out that Arsenal have outstanding players all over the pitch. Not here they didn’t. Liverpool were the side with too many talents to keep pinned down, with Mané, Wijnaldum and Can excelling and Firmino, Salah and Henderson not far behind. Even Daniel Sturridge came on for a late cameo and bagged his first goal of the season, whereas Arsenal’s substitutes were unable to make any impact. When Giroud headed over from Özil’s free kick in the closing seconds it simply confirmed that Arsenal had not managed to properly bother Loris Karius in 90 minutes of football. Whichever way Wenger chooses to arrange his front line, that is an unsatisfactory return.