Nine points from Nine and a new #9

Welcome dear listener to First State Kopites. The podcast of the Premier League Champions and league leaders. It's the eighth podcast of the season so far. Reds now have three wins out of three going into the international break.  We beat Arsenal by 1-0 despite the prevailing narrative pre-game. I’m Paul and today I am joined by Daz and Sean. 

Part One - God, Arsenal are a tough watch. STERILE!!

• National narrative, Arsenal missed an opportunity with Liverpool playing poorly. 

• Only 2 Arsenal players had a positive OBV (On Ball Value) - advanced metric that assigns a value to each action a player takes in line with the positive or negative impact it has on the probability of their team scoring and conceding.

• My narrative, is a set piece your only way home? And the time wasting - jeez. That’s a lot of money to spend on a low block. Arteta has not won at Anfield.

• Physicality was rewarded - Timber on Gakpo 9m, Zubimendi on Gakpo at 35 Gabriel on Salah at 42 - in between Ryan gets a soft yellow. Eventually Zubimendi gets a card.

• They do play in Arteta’s image - Exhibit A - Timber at 92m; Merino dive at 37

• First half played on Arsenal’s terms. Passing lanes blocked, we live to get set pieces. Even then the VVD interception from Raya’s pass out could have led to more

• Second half - especially after Curtis came on (54), we took a few more risks - the offside goal, the Salah first touch moments and then the foul on Jones that led to the free kick:

• That free kick though - Neville roundly mocked for suggesting it was like Ronaldo. The man who hasn’t scored from a free kick in years.

• Ali marshaling the Liverpool wall

• Anfield - now 19 games unbeaten at home. Crowd really picked up in the second half - ‘Where’s your European Cup?’

Part Two - season so far:

• The spending conversation - ‘kings ransom’. We’ve sold over $200m, Arsenal may have sales of $30m

• We look for value and will pay for generational talent (a la Billy Beane)

• Chelsea and their own personal VAR, 2 points behind us.

We’ll be back with a preview of the Burnley game. Thanks to Sean and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.
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