Unai Emery Says Liverpool Thrashing Will Be Good for Arsenal

Arsenal manager Unai Emery said his team's 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday will be good for his side.

Roberto Firmino hit a hat-trick for the Reds in a dominant win that moved them nine points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Emery told BT Sport (h/t Metro), his men need to follow the example set by Jurgen Klopp's Premier League leaders:

"They are an example for us. We need also to be demanding of ourself but also we need time. We need to do this progress doing a step every day. Today this loss is good. Not a good result. But good to know how to do this step in our process for our future. We have a very important match on Tuesday – we have to show we can recover and show a good performance."

Arsenal took the lead at Anfield after 11 minutes through Ainsley Maitland-Niles. However, the Reds hit back quickly through Firmino and then coasted to an emphatic win.

Poor defending by Emery's side aided the hosts. Football writer Peter Galindo was critical of Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos:

Meanwhile, Squawka Football noted how porous Arsenal's defence has been:

Henry Winter at The Times said the club need to invest in their back line:

Arsenal must attempt to bounce back from the demoralising defeat against struggling Fulham at the Emirates Stadium on New Year's Day.

The Gunners hammered the Whites 5-1 at Craven Cottage in October. However, Fulham have since replaced manager Slavisa Jokanovic with Claudio Ranieri and are on a run of three games without defeat.