5 Positives Taken From Liverpool Win & Good News On Arteta

Guest post submitted by Gooner Daily:

Arsenal secured a vital three points with a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday but the game was marred by an off-the-ball incident involving Jordan Henderson and Mikel Arteta. Some might say it was accidental while others would say it was intentional, but Arteta was on the end of a nasty whack from the England Under-21 International and he spent a considerable length of time receiving treatment.

He was diagnosed to have suffered a concussion and he was quickly taken to a hospital for further treatment. Despite the fact that the Spaniard has strong links with Liverpool’s arch-rival Everton, he still received a rousing reception from the Anfield faithful. Arteta is quoted on Sky Sports News as speaking about the terrifying incident but said he’s fine now and ready to return to action:

“I have suffered the biggest fear of my life. I only remember the fall by the blow and nothing after. It was terrifying but now I am better.”

“Sincerely, I do not remember too much apart from the impact. I have heard people applauded me as I left the field and I am grateful for this reception.”

Arteta could be in line to make a swift comeback with a possible starting berth against AC Milan on Tuesday. With the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Arsenal’s medical student, Abou Diaby still out, Arteta doesn’t really leave his manager with much any choice.

Moving over to the other section of this article, here’s my take on five positives taken from Arsenal’s win in Anfield:

Arsene Wenger’s Starting Line Up

It has always been a football norm to stick with a “winning team” and in my opinion, Arsene Wenger did very well to stick with the same squad that mauled Tottenham Hotspur a week earlier. Wenger didn’t have much options to tweak his defense and midfield thanks to the large outlay of players nursing injuries, but he did have options on who was to support Robin van Persie.

Gervinho has been synonymous with the first team this season and he recently endured a gruelling adventure in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea as the Elephants of Ivory Coast coasted all the way to the finals only to lose to Zambia courtesy of a penalty miss from Le Forehead. The Ox on the other hand has been riding high recently but has missed out in recent weeks.

Yossi Benayoun and Theo Walcott were largely impressive against Tottenham but they failed to replicate that form at Anfield. In my opinion, they merited their starting berth but I expect Wenger to tweak things a bit against AC Milan.

Full Backs

Bacary Sagna is a player that’s renowned for his weird hairstyle, amazing fitness levels, perfect balance between his attacking and defensive play and of course, his consistency. Defensively, Sagna was excellent against Liverpool and contained Stewart Downing well. Offensively, Theo Walcott became a peripheral figure thereby causing Sagna to do his “job” by supplying an inch-perfect cross to Robin van Persie; they rest was history.

Kieran Gibbs’ career has been blighted so badly by injuries, that Arsenal fans give special offerings in church when he manages to play week in week out. Gibbs put up a great shift against Tottenham but there were doubts on his fitness for the game against Liverpool. The Englishman passed his fitness test and added a lot of depth to Arsenal’s wing play.

Wojciech Szczesny’s Performance

Lukasz Fabianski can whine all he wants about not getting enough playing time at Arsenal but I’m pretty sure he was a bit content with his place in the dugout after watching Szczesny on Saturday. The Pole was wrongly adjudged to foul Luis Suarez in the box but the art of karma was on full display when Szczesny made two brilliant stops to keep Liverpool at bay.

Szczesny was left flat-footed when Laurent Koscielny miscued his clearance to gift the hosts the lead but he picked up the Frenchman from the ground and made several vital saves that restored belief and instil some confidence on his team mates. A great keeper who will only get better.

Goals, Goals, Goals from Robin van Persie

Arsenal were outplayed, outrun and outclassed by Liverpool all game long but Arsenal’s first goal came through a peach of a cross from Sagna and the predatory instincts on Robin van Persie. Clearly aware that he was going to beat the aging Jamie Carragher for pace, the Dutchman nicked away from the old hag to head in Arsenal’s equalizer.

The match-winning goal in the dying minutes of the game was reminiscent of that wonder strike against Everton in December and van Persie has now increased his scintillating goal tally to 31 goals with 25 of them scored in the Barclay’s Premier League. He also took time to pay tribute to his team mates for their immense contribution to his amazing goal scoring form.

Newly-found Fighting Spirit

Arsenal started this campaign on an all-time low following that demoralising 8-2 defeat to Manchester United but Arsene Wenger steadied the ship with the injection of his new signings and Arsenal went on to end 2011 with a bang with a consistent run of results that saw the Gunners amass 21 points from a possible 24.

The Gunners took their foot off the pedal in the start of 2012 and three straight Premier League defeats in January made the fans ask for Arsene Wenger’s head on a plate. February saw the Gunners crash out of the FA Cup and you have to be one hell of an optimist if you believe that we can achieve the impossible against AC Milan in the second leg of the Champions League.

With a 4th place position labelled as a trophy, Arsenal were faced with a daunting task to get victories in key matches against Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle. We’ve now come from behind to beat both Spurs and Liverpool, showing immense fighting spirit along the way.

Arsenal fans will be buzzing this week after a near perfect weekend that saw us beat Liverpool, while top-four rivals Chelsea lost to West Brom and sacked their manager. The weekend finished on a high note when Manchester United continued their spanking trend against Tottenham with a resounding 3-1 victory.

Two weeks ago, Twitchy Ol’ ‘Arry was king on the throne knowing that he was 10 points above Arsenal. Following his team’s back to back defeats, St. Totteringham’s day might just come after all.