He should not have been; such are Liverpool’s travails at present that beating them, even at Anfield, even having conceded the first goal, is no longer the mark of a top-class team.
It would be tempting to ascribe yesterday’s turnaround to a new-found sense of belief among Arsenal’s youngsters, just as it is tempting to put it down to Wenger’s powers of motivation, with Cesc Fàbregas, the captain, saying that he had never seen his manager so angry as he was at half-time. Tempting, but, ultimately, misleading. The reality here is that Liverpool, for the umpteenth time this season, collapsed under the pressure that is coming from within, rather than the pressure applied by their opponents.
Arsenal, as Wenger acknowledged, were fortunate to be only 1-0 down at half-time, trailing to Dirk Kuyt’s scrambled goal, but it took only a marginal improvement early in the second half to put them 2-1 up. First Glen Johnson contrived to run the ball into his own net and, as the now-familiar sense of doom engulfed Anfield, it fell to Andrey Arshavin, the unlikeliest of lone centre forwards, to strike a wonderful winning goal in the 58th minute, the only moment of real class that either team produced all afternoon.
Coming on a weekend when Chelsea and Manchester United slipped up on home turf, Arsenal’s victory merits a rethink from those of us who have dismissed them as too fragile and too lightweight, most recently after their 3-0 home defeat by Carlo Ancelotti’s team a fortnight ago. A rethink, but probably not a reappraisal.
As impressive as it is to win at Anfield without a recognised centre forward, it would still take a huge leap of faith to suggest that Arsenal look potential champions, even in a season when, as Wenger observed on Friday, the bar appears to have been lowered considerably.
United, for example, do not look anything like so fearsome as the team that won the title in the previous three seasons, with Cristiano Ronaldo to the fore, but their regression does not begin to compare with that witnessed at Liverpool this season.
Goodness knows what Xabi Alonso made of his former team, as he took his seat in the directors’ box, back at Anfield for the first time since his summer departure to Real Madrid.
Alonso has been badly missed, but it has taken more than the loss of one player to turn last term’s title challengers into this season’s abject underperformers, a team level on points with Birmingham City.
At first, Alonso might have wondered whether reports of Liverpool’s demise had been exaggerated. With Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres resuming their partnership up front and Javier Mascherano snapping at the heels of Fàbregas, the home team made a spirited start. Torres fluffed a fine chance in the twelfth minute and they should have had a penalty soon afterwards when William Gallas brought down Gerrard. When the goal came four minutes before half-time, after Manuel Almunia punched Gerrard’s free kick into the path of the grateful Kuyt, it was no less than Liverpool deserved.
Wenger evidently made his feelings known at the interval, but he was more willing after the match to share his insight into the anxiety that he felt had begun to arrest Liverpool. “I believe at the moment they haven’t got the confidence that they had last year,” the Arsenal manager said. “They had played at a high tempo in the first half and it was going to be difficult for them to play like that for 90 minutes. Also, because they didn’t score the second goal, at half-time you begin to think of all the doubts that come in your mind.”
That appraisal certainly seemed to fit the Liverpool who re-emerged for the second half. With almost their first attack, Arsenal equalised as Fàbregas released Samir Nasri, whose cross was inadvertently touched on by Jamie Carragher into the path of Johnson, who, before he knew what was happening, had diverted the ball past Pepe Reina and into his own net.
Suddenly Arsenal looked by far the more assured team, with Fàbregas and Alexandre Song making their presence felt in midfield, but their second goal still came as a bolt from the blue. Fàbregas crossed from the right, Carragher and Theo Walcott rose for the header and, as the ball was unwittingly helped on by Johnson, Arshavin took one touch to compose himself and another to hit a stupendous shot in off the post.
That was it. End of story. Liverpool had 36 minutes, including stoppage time, to force an equaliser at least, but they did not create a chance of worthy of the term.
As for Arsenal, they deserve a pat on the back, but not much more than that. If Wenger was genuinely unimpressed by Chelsea’s win at the Emirates Stadium a fortnight ago, he cannot have seen much more than three points to celebrate here.