Arsenal were outclassed in their 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Monday night.
Despite taking a shock lead against the Premier League champions on 25 minutes, the Gunners soon found themselves behind.
And they rarely looked like threatening again until Diogo Jota secured the match two minutes from time.
It was a humbling experience for Mikel Arteta’s side, who have been in impressive form in recent weeks.
Midfield matters
Arsenal were second best all over the pitch but it was in middle of the park where the gulf between the two sides really stood out.
The double pivot of Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka couldn’t cope with the incessant pressing of Liverpool’s midfield trio of Naby Keita, Fabinho and Georginio Wijnaldum.
The Gunners looked better in the second half once Dani Ceballos was introduced but were a long way off matching the Reds’ injury-ravaged midfield.
Stats don’t lie
The stats paint a similarly grim picture for Arsenal fans.
Liverpool completed more than twice the number of passes as their opponents in the match – 677 to Arsenal’s 295. They also had almost twice as many touches in the match.
This demonstrates how little of the ball the Gunners saw and how dominant Jurgen Klopp’s side were.
One-week fix for Arsenal
There is less than one week left of the transfer window for Arsenal to fix their midfield problems.
They are still being heavily linked with Lyon’s Houssem Aouar and Thomas Partey of Atletico Madrid.
Mikel Arteta was quick to praise Liverpool’s quality in his post-match interview. Arsenal will have to increase their own quality if they are to have any hope of catching the Premier League champions any time soon.
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