Arsenal Receive End of the Year Beating From Liverpool

Arsenal endured a frustrating night on Saturday as they lost to a ruthless Liverpool side in their last game of 2018 and their first in a set of second leg fixtures. The Gunners who had witnessed a run ofugly displays in recent games suffered a 5-1 humiliation on their visit to Anfield and were unable to put an end to the Merseyside club’s unbeaten run in the Premier League.

Indications before the match dropped my hopes of a remarkably outstanding performance from our boys. I was only expecting a draw or win to come as a miracle even though I did not foresee our heavy conceding of avoidable goals. We were without our best defenders but that was not an excuse for such shameful display.

What started brightly turned sour. Arsenal, following a good start scored in the 11^th minute but were hit four times in quick succession before the end of the first period. It was a case of a rat going to bite the tail of a sleeping cat. We never foresaw what followed our early hit.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles combined well with his academy colleague Alex Iwobi to finish from the far post, scoring his first Arsenal goal. Roberto Firmino within three minutes turned things around when the Reds took advantage of frailties from the away side. The first originated from a scramble which gifted the ball to the Brazilian while the next was a pounce on a loose ball by the same guy. In this situation, he went past two Arsenal defenders to record his brace.

A third followed through Sadio Mane’s goal then the fourth at the stroke of halftime when Sokratis conceded a penalty that was converted by Mohamed Salah.

Sead Kolasinac’s second half push birthed another penalty call. This gave Firmino his hattrick and at this point, it was over for Unai Emery and his men who remain on 5th spot just six points above Manchester United who have an outstanding game to play.

It was so glaring as we have seen in past games that there is an urgent need for rehabilitation in our defence. Like I said in past discussions, this issue has to be addressed in the January transfer window or we suffer massively in the remaining part of the season.

On New Year Day, Fulham will visit the Emirates Stadium to grace Arsenal’s first game of the year 2019 which will be the second fixture in the second phase of the season.