Arsene Wenger was counting the cost of Arsenal’s loss to Liverpool as Aaron Ramsey and Alex Iwobi sustained injuries in their Premier League opener.
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With Per Mertesacker and Gabriel injured and Laurent Koscielny short of match fitness, Wenger deployed Calum Chambers, 21, and 20-year-old debutant Rob Holding at centre-back in Saturday’s game.
Philippe Coutinho was the star of the show with two goals and an assist as Liverpool edged Arsenal 4-3 in a thriller at the Emirates.
He said: “We are bitterly disappointed”. It looked like after half an hour, it looked a little bit like it wasn’t a Liverpool today, but we struck back, and that’s very important.
Although Liverpool scored four against the Gunners, they were guilty of poor defending through-out and were made to work for the result when Arsenal pulled two goals back after going 4-1 down.
Asked whether he could handle such pulsating encounters every week, Klopp added: “Every week, I’m not sure but we jumped in the cold water”.
“Or do they play in this kind of game and get injured, like Ramsey today?”
Adam Lallana put Liverpool in front after the break before Coutinho scored his second and Sadio Mane slammed home to make it four.
“It could have been [so much better] because I feel we had a great first half”, Wenger told Arsenal Player. At 4-1 down at home it’s hard with so many young players. We started the game not so brightly after we thought we had quite a good preseason.
“We’ve prepared well the players we have but as well you have to consider we have been a bit unlucky”.
The Brazil global cancelled out Theo Walcott’s opener at the Emirates, sending Jurgen Klopp’s side on their way to victory in their opening Premier League game of the season. But the more goals I score, the more I can help the team.
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“When they did come forward, they looked like a real force and another plus for Jurgen Klopp is the depth in his squad that allowed him to bring Emre Can and Divock Origi off the bench in the second half”. “Then the manager said a lot of things we needed to improve on in the second half and I felt we did that”.
