Arsenal have conceded more than 30 Premier League goals since their last win at Anfield and Mikel Arteta’s efforts to prepare for the visitors ended in horror.
Arsenal and a trip to Anfield is not a combination north Londoners have enjoyed over the past decade.In fact, it’s just over 11 years since the Gunners won 2-0 on Merseyside when Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski got on the scoresheet for Arsene Wenger’s men.
Since then, they have not only been defeated, but also humiliated several times.Results at Anfield over the past decade have included defeats of 4-1, 5-1 and 4-0.
Every time Liverpool beat Arsenal, the Gunners had no answer. Mikel Arteta has been involved in some of these defeats as a player and will be looking to end their terrible run of performances in 2021 using flawed tactics.
There was an air of menace at Anfield and the Gunners manager wanted to make sure his players were ready. As a result, ahead of the November 2021 clash, the Spanish players played Liverpool songs over the loudspeakers during training.
“Never walk alone,” shouted Arteta from his London base at Colney. “Guys! Mentality, we’ve started the game! Here we are at Anfield. ‘Let’s go,’” he shouted. He told one of his staff it was one of his ‘crazy ideas’, but explaining the method behind his madness , he pointed out that Anfield was the only stadium he felt strongly about.
He told Amazon Prime Video: “The game was there and all of a sudden I saw a red shirt flying around. The game was hovering over my head and I couldn’t react. People think, “What is he doing?” and I’m thinking “I can’t do this”.
Emotionally, physically, I can’t handle it. Everything is moving too fast. “I’ve only felt like that once in my career and that was at Anfield.”Arteta’s idea divided opinion, but if he wanted to judge it on its merits, it was an abject failure.
Arsenal bounced back from a poor start to the season and went on an eight-match unbeaten run against Liverpool, winning six of them.
But Jurgen Klopp’s men taught them a hard lesson and won 4-0 at home. Sadio Mane scored the first goal just before the end of the first half and Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Takumi Minamino also scored in the 45th minute of the second half.
Last season, the Arsenal manager may have thought he was on his way when the hosts led 2-0 at half-time. Salah pulled one back from the penalty spot to give Liverpool some hope. But Roberto Firmino equalized with three minutes remaining to give Arsenal three valuable points at Anfield.
