“It’s a shame in some ways that we talk like this because what we’re saying really is that what we want is a change of managers and for them to spend £150m”, said Neville, speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football. “We just need to be a little bit more street-wise”. We had talked in the locker room about the need to start the second half fast and take the game to Arsenal.
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“It was too easy to play between our rows and in the spaces we gave them, the formation we had chosen was to close those spaces and what we did was open spaces”.
“The moment shifted when they got an equaliser in the last minute of the first half”.
After Theo Walcott put Arsenal ahead at the Emirates Stadium, Philippe Coutinho scored twice and Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane also found the net as the visitors stormed into a 4-1 lead. “The manager wanted us to pressure them more and said how fit we were and how we can push on in the second half”.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits his joy was short-lived as he feared an Arsenal comeback in their Premier League opener on Sunday.
Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, bemoaning the ill effects of the European championship on his pre-season, will hope returning players give his squad a lift, even as he was given new injury headaches.
Wenger was forced to play Chambers alongside 20-year-old summer signing Rob Holding in the heart of his defence with Per Mertesacker and Gabriel both injured.
Nigeria global Alex Iwobi was another casualty in the thrilling encounter and Wenger admits his side were not physically ready for the match against Liverpool. “We’ve got a full week’s training now to prepare for Burnley”.
“You are in a catch-22 situation with the Euros”.
“You could see that we dropped physically today. It’s a sad indictment on the game, but you have to get in with them”.
Arsenal have been working on a deal for Valencia centre-back Shkodran Mustafi and continue to be linked with Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette, and Henry said they are the two positions that have to be covered.
“We didn’t recover really from that, and after that we paid for a lack of experience at the back and the fact that some players are not physically ready to last 90 minutes at that level”.
“I thought for the first 45 minutes we were excellent”, Cech said.
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“So, it was hard work but a deserved win in the end”.
