Arsenal’s victory over Liverpool last night was as strange a match as you could hope to see in the Premier League.
As pointed out by the Match of the Day (BBC1, 10:45, 15/07) pundits Tim Cahill and Ian Wright, the Gunners came out of the blocks incredibly slowly.
But the game turned on an error from Virgil van Dijk, which allowed Alexandre Lacazette to equalise and Cahill, a former team-mate of Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta at Everton, praise the Spaniard’s philosophy for pushing the reigning champions back.
He said: “Van Dijk, there, that’s a massive mistake but that’s down to Arteta’s philosophy. He wants the team to press; they’re down and showing some fight.
“This is hustling, that’s not a foul. Can Arsenal go on to win the game? Arsenal, to punish them, this is fantastic.”
Arteta’s post-match comments show he knows how far his side have still got to go to catch up to the likes of Liverpool.
But as he said, there is now no difference in terms of commitment and responsibility – and that’s a major step.
Arteta is determined to set high standards at Arsenal and see who is willing to match him.
Not every team will give the game away like Liverpool did but Arsenal will likely be doing their best every week to force errors.
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