Arsene Wenger admitted that his Arsenal team are “not ready” to compete in the Premier League after seeing Aaron Ramsey and Alex Iwobi limp out of their 4-3 home defeat by Liverpool, leading to yet another uncomfortable atmosphere inside the Emirates Stadium. We’ll let you be the judge. Ramsey, Koscielny, Özil – they went to the semi-final. We have to be ready next week because we go to Leicester.
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He added: “At the same time, we are not stupid”.
Wenger had taken the decision to give extended summer breaks to Laurent Koscielny, Oliver Giroud and Mesut Özil, after their involvement in the latter stages of Euro 2016, meaning that they were unavailable here, while he had also lost Per Mertesacker and Gabriel Paulista to injuries in pre-season. At half-time, I was really happy about having it because we could speak about everything and it was clear – our mistakes were so big so it was easy to speak about them because the players already felt it, but couldn’t change it in the game. Whether it be a lack of signings, injuries or players getting over global tournaments, nobody does it better than Arsenal and Wenger.
“Scoring four goals is wonderful, conceding three is the opposite of that emotion”, he said. “You have to sometimes accept that you can not control absolutely everything”.
“We can always score goals and we can defend much better”, said their manager Juergen Klopp.
Arsenal fought back with goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers to provide a nervy finish but Klopp’s men held on to win 4-3.
They were level though in injury time at the end of the first half and it was a moment of magic from Coutinho, who curled a free-kick from 30 yards over the wall and into the top corner. Walcott had earlier had his penalty saved by Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet before giving Arsenal the lead.
“I knew it in the moment, but it was too late”.
“I told my players at half-time there’s no reason to be hectic in our game, but obviously here it’s a little bit hectic!”
Liverpool, facing three away games to start the season because of building work at Anfield, could have been two goals down at halftime against last season’s runners-up Arsenal.
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While a defeated Arsene Wenger was counting the cost of Arsenal’s young defenders, a triumphant Jose Mourinho highlighted the value of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s experience to Manchester United on a day of contrasts for the two managers on Sunday.
