Freepik.
Morning all.
One from Kev…
Were Liverpool really that good last season, were they really that all-conquering machine in the league?
Or were they, as I believe, just extremely lucky, particularly with their opening fixtures, very lucky that Man City suddenly came to a natural end of their domination cycle and really lucky with injuries? After all, their senior players stayed fit and seemed to hit the best form of their careers together and they were massively lucky that Arsenal suffered an injury nightmare into the bargain….
To me Liverpool didn’t look that all-conquering in the League Cup final when they faced Newcastle, a team that hadn’t won a serious trophy since 1969, Liverpool also flopped in Europe and in the FA Cup as well.
To me it was a perfect storm in the League in their favour with the added benefit of the PGMOL subconsciously showing them a lot of latitude whilst punishing Arsenal to the max.
But nothing lasts forever, you might think it will but it doesn’t as we well know at Arsenal. When we won the league in 2004 if any of us had been told by a trusted friend that ‘you’d better enjoy it Kev/Rico/Adam etc because you won’t win the league again for the next 21 years’ – you’d have listened to that in disbelief and then just laughed.
But here we are, in the wilderness for 21 years, when even those successive runners-up spots seem to taunt us as not being good enough or bottlers, etc.
But this season really seems different. Yes, I know the injuries seem the same old same old, but this squad is immense. No Eddie Nketiah’s, Cedric’s or Rob Holding’s artificially filling up the squad, all our players are elite.
We went to Anfield, the bete noir of Arsenal dreams, without Havertz, Saka, White, Jesus, Nordgaard with question marks over Odegaard and Trossard, lost Saliba and yet we dominated them, silenced the crowd and were a whisker away from scoring. They won with a once-in-a-lifetime free kick that you won’t see again from that player and we were unlucky on a few occasions not to get a penalty. A penalty? Ofcourse not, it’s Anfield, don’t be silly.
Football has a habit of leading you on, like an attractive girl you’re really sweet on who then blows you out and goes out with your best friend, we all know it…
Well after Sunday and the signing of Isak it all feels like that, but it’s only three games and we don’t have to go to Anfield or Old Trafford again in the League, we took six points and deserved seven.
Our walking wounded will be back very soon and we’ll go again. Liverpool didn’t strengthen their defence or their midfield so let’s see how things transpire when Frimpong is joined in the physio room?
Catch up in the comments.