Arsenal and Liverpool Swap Scripts; Reds Play 'Pretty,' Gunners Take the Points

Arsenal’s win at Anfield on Sunday was the kind of victory that had a strange ebb and flow about it.

Towards the end of the Gunners' match with Liverpool, the commentators (whose identity must be a state secret, judging by the difficulty in finding their names) took stock of the match around the last five minutes of the match.

To paraphrase, the co-commentator said that Liverpool had “outplayed” Arsenal in “most departments of the match” but could not find a goal to show for it.

Often, a phrase like that might have been attached to the Gunners at the hip and if one had heard such a phrase, no one would have been surprised if the Emirates had been the venue for whatever match they were watching.

But that was not the case on Sunday afternoon.

If one were to be honest, the two clubs swapped their traditional scripts.

Liverpool tried to pass and look for the killer ball to score with while Arsenal were ruthless on the counterattack.

That’s not and will not be to say that the Gunners did not play attractive football for patches. They did so and looked far more like themselves in the final 10 minutes than they did for the first 80.

But for once, the path of soaking up pressure and hitting on the break was the way that the Gunners won the game, instead of being the club forced to try to break down their opposition.

Yes, Arsenal are not as flush of the creative artisans as they have been in years past. If anything, it seems that Arsene Wenger finally adapted his strategy to fit the team at his disposal.

Abou Diaby and Mikel Arteta formed a powerful double pivot that cut off Luis Suarez from the midfield triangle that Liverpool worked to try to free up the Uruguayan.

The center-back pairing of Thomas Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker stood firm once again, even if Mertesacker did need some last-ditch tackling and a leg the length of the touchline to not give away a penalty.

New boys Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski came up trumps in the attacking third by potting their first goals for the club while Olivier Giroud should have done likewise late in both halves.

Carl Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs were forced to be far more defensively active to combat Liverpool’s wing play, as were Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski.

Vito Mannone looked comfortable behind his solid central defenders and gave the Reds short shrift on rebounds, with the only save that bounced around cleared by Vermaelen late on.

It was the kind of performance that the fans had been wanting for the past two weeks. It may not have been the flowing waves like Arsenal attacks of old, but three points is three points and they were taken with efficiency.

Perhaps the only difference between the Liverpool side of Sunday and the Arsenal side of previous terms was that the Reds had no scorer comparable to a man of a certain Dutch heritage to lead the line.

In contrast, Arsenal had to rely on a team effort in a way that so many others have had to do against the red half of North London.

They were compact and combative; concise and ruthless. They understood when to push and when to hold the ball. They let Liverpool play deep at times and pressed them hard at others.

It was almost as if they were playing themselves, which might be an apt description.

Liverpool tried to play like Arsenal. Arsenal played more like Liverpool.

The result spoke for itself.