The best Liverpool ever? And why Arsenal ‘progress’ is a myth…

Editor F365
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.

The Mailbox features all the reasons why Arsenal’s improvement should be put into context, while Liverpool fans enjoy a huge win at the Emirates.

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com

 

Behind Arsenal’s ‘progress’
Please forgive this email because according to certain comedians in the mailbox, eg Tom Goldenballs aka Arsene’s Lovechild from Walthamstow says:
“Arsenal fans should be happiest of top teams”
LOL.
I know it isn’t a popular Arteta love-in viewpoint round here but anyhow here goes. In this season of “amazing progress” for Arsenal, the hard facts are:

– Spent more than any team in the summer window
– Played just one game per week most of the season
– Season over by February, despite that
– No major injuries
– The usual thrashing at Citeh
– Customary home defeat to Chelski
– Routine thrashing at Anfield
– Standard Old Trafford capitulation, even when ManYoo were manager-less 🙄
– Domestic cup elimination to one of the big boys
– And now the usual home schooling by Klopp. Again.

Excuse me if I haven’t drunk the Arteta Kool-Aid but to these eyes, Arsenal’s “progress” essentially relies on: spending more than every other team, using the excuse that this spending doesn’t count as they’re “young”, beating a load of teams you really ought to be beating, getting outclassed and bricking yourself every single time one of the big boys comes to your yard. Just because Man United are abysmal and Spurs dysfunctional, this doesn’t overlook the fact that Arsenal and Arteta’s performance against the big teams is a joke. Vieira at Palace in a few months has shown far superior ability when squaring up to the big boys.

Arteta can manage for 150 years and he’ll come nowhere near matching Klopp. Let’s not forget Klopp came into a much tougher situation than Arteta. How long did it take him to compete for titles again? 🤔

Mind you that Unai Emery is total rubbish eh? Quarter finals of the CL with a squad costing less than Arteta’s summer spend.
Stewie Griffin (Groundhog Day again, but 4th place and the chance to get humbled 10-2 by Bayern in the CL is irresistible!)

 


16 Conclusions: Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool


 

The myth of Saka
My mate Simon is an arsenal fan. He assures me Saka is brilliant but when I’ve watched Arsenal play Liverpool this season, I haven’t seen anything special.

Sure, he’s only 20 and gets some goals and assists but his record against Liverpool and the top 6/elite is pretty poor (although scored against City). I’d have Martinelli any day who had TAA on the ropes last night. Am I missing something beyond his work off the ball?
Zak LFC

 

The problem with Trent
Great game of football last night. The match showed that Arsenal have made real progress and we should be proud even with the loss. 4th place is still in our hands!

Liverpool showed why they would be worthy winners of the league title. Their squad depth is outstanding.

I think this game provided evidence of why exactly Trent Alexander Arnold is not a starter in the eyes of Southgate for England. He is a phenomenal creative player who could potentially be the best passer in the whole England team. However, a right back’s first job is to defend, and TAA struggled against Martinelli. It was quite outstanding how easily Martinelli was able to skip past TAA on numerous occasions. Gabi has also had the better of him in other games this season. Gabi has great potential and could be as Klopp has stated on numerous occasions ‘a generational talent.’ However, he is far from the complete article and currently is not as good as some of the left wingers TAA could potentially face at the World Cup. It’s a shame, as England could really use his delivery into the box especially when games will inevitably get tight. But currently he is a defensive liability we can not afford.
Ash (London)

 

Short memories
So Jamie Carragher says that City wouldn’t put in a performance like Liverpool did in the first half against Arsenal.

Sure Jamie, unless you remember their last performance in exactly the same fixture where they lost the first half 1 nil and were thoroughly outplayed, you’d be right.
Oliver Thompson (Don’t even get me started on Merson’s ramblings)

 

Best Liverpool ever?
Credit where it’s due, Arsenal gave a very good account of themselves today and the game was very tough. There was one moment late in the first half where they lost possession and within ten seconds they had eleven men behind the ball. Liverpool really weren’t sure how to break through and it showed because they played quite a few long searching balls hoping to force a mistake.

For all Arsenal’s positives though I’d say that the biggest chance they had was a consequence of Thiago going to sleep more than their own creativity. Martinelli had a few good moments against Trent (and looks a real player) but ultimately it didn’t lead to anything which I think is a reflection on Fabinho, VVD and Matip who were all faultless today.

Mane and Jota were very poor and I was expecting both of them to get hooked when I saw Firmino and Salah on the touchline. The only surprise was that Mane was allowed to play the full 90 minutes. Maybe Klopp feels it’s more important to keep the others more fresh or maybe he sees something I’m missing about Mane but overall I thought his game was poor today.

That second Liverpool goal is such a credit to Klopp, Robertson and Firmino who are, in many ways, the original heroes of this team. Firmino presses the ball to win possession high up the field. Finds Thiago and Salah gets the shot away. The ball breaks to Saka who should just clear but Robertson presses the hell out of the ball and ends up with the whole left side of the pitch to himself. In the meantime Firmino has ghosted to the front post and then has the deftest of touches to find the back of the net.

I keep thinking that I wouldn’t mind Salah leaving if we end up getting someone crazy like Mbappe but the problem is that Salah plays with no ego. Mo came on and pressed so hard and didn’t stop grinding all game long. Does Mbappe have the will to work for the team in the way that Salah did tonight? I imagine that Salah works so hard that everyone else around him feels obliged to raise their game too. Even in the 90th minute we were working so hard to try and push forward and the mindset of this team is unreal frankly. Maybe the best Liverpool team I’ve ever seen.

It’s the hope that will kill me.
Minty, LFC

 

Man Utd mess
Ladies and Gentlemen we have officially reached Peak Mailbox. James from Liverpool says that nobody at Manchester United should listen to Ralf because if he would have done anything, he would have done it by now. (checks notes: 3 months into his tenure) A few sentences later, he says that Manchester United should hire ten Hag and be patient enough to let him fail in the short-term to bring sustainable success. If I were on the Manchester United board, I would have let the fans burn down the stadium. It’s surely a quicker way to destroy a once-great team. Plus it probably speeds up the renovation of a once-great stadium.
Niall, Bethany Beach

 

…Couldn’t let Mick in Cardiff’s opinion that United might be ill-advised to go for a manager of a ‘less visible club’, slide.

For Mick I have three tongue-in-cheek words. Alex. Ferguson. Aberdeen.

Fair to say it’s worked for them in the past, eh?

Cheers,
Marc (as a Liverpool fan I say keep the treadmill going – I bet Miami would let Phil Neville go for the right price)

 

…Re: Man U not having a large stadium lying idle nearby which they could use during redevelopment. Surely Wembley would be perfect as it is so much closer to the bulk of their fan base than Manchester.

Thanks, I’ll be here all week.
Mike, WHU

 

Chelsea have done nothing
But Chelsea have done ‘Nothing’, some of the contributors insist. And you are right. Chelsea have done nothing. Done nothing to aid Putin, nor have they invaded the Ukraine.

But then Chelsea had done nothing to get where they were. It wasn’t the result of an inspirational manager, a shrewd business plan or a once in a lifetime generation of young talent. You were a billionaires plaything. And my the times you had. Won everything there is to win. Several times. But now those times are over.

And it was always going to happen. He might have got bored. He would have died, eventually, and you’d have had to go back to being a regular club, hoping to find an inspirational manager, a shrewd business plan, or a once in a lifetime generation of young talent.

You have done nothing. Not to deserve this, not to deserve the success. Most of you did nothing to even vaguely question the ethics of it all. And I don’t blame you for that. You won the lottery and who wants to think of tomorrow when today is so very good? But tomorrow is here now. It was a hell of ride. Now stop being c*nts about it.
Anon

 

Super Tommy T
I loved Jose 1, Loved Ancellotti, but Thomas Tuchel has been incredible. He has navigated this team with a storm around the club. His diplomacy, honesty, candour and humour has led the whole club in the darkest times. If he get’s top 4 anything else is just icing

Please don’t take my Tuchel away.
P Didi

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich
Roman in disguise
If I were Roman Abramovich, I’d be tempted to put on a fake mustache, make a bid for Chelsea and have his lawyers make the argument, “Look, if the Premier League can accept the Saudi sovereign wealth fund because it’s separate from the Saudi Arabian state, despite the fact that Mohammed Bin Salman runs both entities, then I’m a different Roman Abramovich because I’m wearing this false mustache. Both are equally sensible positions.”
Ian, LFC Hartford, CT USA

 

…If Roman isn’t allowed to profit from the sale of the club then why doesnt he just give it away to a fans trust or similar?

It’s almost like billionaire owners doesn’t actually give a f*ck about us or something.
Martin Ansell

 

An idea for Chelsea
In the last mailbox it was suggested that Chelsea could just give their tickets away for free, but i have an alternative suggestion. I understand that Stamford Bridge is owned by a separate company to the football club – Chelsea Pitch Owners.
Couldn’t they take on the handling of home ticket sales, with the revenue being used to pay for the matchday employees to keep them in work? That way the revenue doesn’t even get anywhere near the clubs finances.
I’m sure someone cleverer than me could tell me why this won’t work.
Adam P

 

ESL Thursday
Juventus 1 – Villareal 4

What are the chances that “someone” finds a new way to propose the ESL today?
Peter, Southport

 

New rules
I read an interesting letter the other day about how sad it would be if Everton were to be relegated. Everton has a long history and it really would be a shame if they went down. This made me completely rethink my position about competition in European football.
I’ve clearly been mistaken in thinking that the determining factor in football success was money, that having lots of it enables you to buy all the best players and be successful. Of course that doesn’t always work, and sometimes even though you have buckets of cash the team still doesn’t get it right. What’s clearly more important is how many supporters you have. The “big” teams aren’t the ones with the most money they’re the ones with the most supporters, so let’s work things out a different way. I was not giving sufficient weight to entitlement in my views, and so I’m proposing a new formula for how the league should work.
Since there are a number of teams that nobody wants relegated, let’s just grant them permanent league status. This is similar to something that was proposed for the ESL, and surely the finest minds in football can’t be wrong. Having established that only small teams are in danger of relegation we can next focus on the league title.
Instead of awarding it to the team with the most points at the end of the season I would propose that it’s put to a fan vote, that’s a system that will ensure the largest number of fans are happy. Some sort of handicap system could be established for prior winners, to ensure that Manchester United doesn’t win every year and give other teams an opportunity. When Leicester won the league a few years ago how many people did it really make happy? A few Leicester fans were doubtless pleased, but what is that compared to the supporters of the much bigger teams who missed out. Leicester’s good fortune only compounded the misery of Manchester United fans after their team failed to even qualify for the Champions League, which brings us to our next point.
Similar to the league vote, there should also be a vote to determine who qualifies for Europe. Imagine the horror if West Ham or Wolves were to qualify through the league, and deny a bigger team of their rightful place. What people want is to see big teams playing in European games. Why would you want a European Cup final with, let’s say, Aston Villa against Bayern Munich when everyone would much rather see Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea?
I think this proposal is to everyone’s benefit. Successful teams are always popular, so why not directly connect the two and ensure that popular teams are always successful. I don’t know that I would go as far as suggesting that individual results should be scripted… although that is something that could be considered. Maybe the voting could be done at the beginning of the season and would then influence the results during the season, rather than making individual results irrelevant. Remember how exciting the end of the Formula One season was last year, who wouldn’t want that!?
Andrew (Leeds fan, soon to be relegated and not a moment too soon) Canada