Gary Neville says Arsenal are “lacking experience and leadership” but has insisted the north London club should stick with beleaguered manager Arsene Wenger.
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Arsenal briefly threatened to snatch a point when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chambers each scored to cut the deficit to one goal, but Liverpool held on for their first win of the season.
The Brazilian found the back of the Arsenal net either side of the break, his first coming via an unstoppable free-kick, while it would have probably taken two goalkeepers to stop Sadio Mane’s clincher.
Mane scored an excellent goal to put Liverpool 4-1 up at Arsenal on Sunday before the home side fought back into the game and made it 4-3.
Liverpool were short of the target just 2.4 km of that target as they harried and hassled Arsenal and forced them to commit mistakes because of the incessant press.
“Scoring four goals is wonderful, conceding three is the opposite of that emotion”, he said. So, it was hard work but a deserved win in the end. It felt for everybody in that moment “that’s it” but then you have a look at the watch and see there’s still half an hour to go and that’s not too good. “But we showed a few nice signs, a few not-so-nice signs”. “It was a killer blow for an Arsenal team lacking experience and leadership”.
“Of course we are bitterly disappointed”, said the Frenchman, who will mark his 20th year in charge next month. “The most important thing is to give everything and be the best on the pitch”.
The France global has only returned to training this week after being given an extended break following Euro 2016, but was rested despite injuries also keeping Per Mertesacker and Gabriel Paulista out.
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“But we are not stupid. You have to sometimes accept that you can not control absolutely everything, even if you try to be as intelligent as possible”. You have 37 more games and you need to make sure that is the last defeat.
