Arsenal suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season thanks to a moment of brilliance from Dominik Szoboszlai.
There was nothing between the two title rivals in a match where chances were at a premium before the Hungarian produced the match-winning moment.
Szoboszlai labelled David Raya as ‘unbelievable’ after the game but there was nothing the Spanish goalkeeper could do to prevent Mikel Arteta’s side from being edged out.
Arteta has come under criticism for his team selection at Anfield after choosing a rather conservative side with the likes of Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli starting. However, pundit Robbie Earle has backed the manager with one decision he made.
Robbie Earle agrees with Mikel Arteta’s decision not to start Eberechi Eze for Arsenal
Speaking on the latest episode of ‘The 2 Robbies’ podcast, former Premier League striker Earle has revealed he agreed with Arteta’s decision not to start Eberechi Eze in the clash with Liverpool.
Gary Neville thought Eze looked ‘sharp’ in his appearance from the bench but Earle understood the decision not to start the 27-year-old after only a week with the team.
Earle stated: “Let me tell you where I am on the Eze thing. Brilliant footballer, plays with a little bit of freedom and not always in a team’s way, which Arteta talked about, which is more important because that’s who he is.
“When you go to a team like Arsenal, there’s learnings about where you need to be without the ball, what your connections are to your midfield players, to your fullbacks.
“That doesn’t happen in a week’s training, that can take a few weeks, a couple of months to settle in, to understand. I thought it would have been a risk to send Eze in at the start.”
Eberechi Eze can help prevent the isolation of Viktor Gyokeres up top for Arsenal
Upon reflection, Arteta will have regrets over how he set up his Arsenal side, none more so than leaving Viktor Gyokeres totally isolated up front.
The Swedish striker worked extremely hard and made several intelligent runs off of the Liverpool defence but there was no creativity to find him.
Rio Ferdinand has slammed Gyokeres for his performance against Liverpool but the truth is that the 27-year-old was let down by his teammates.
Eze is the type of player that will feed Gyokeres and find those runs beyond the defence, even in the 20 minutes they shared on the pitch at Anfield, the Swede straight away was involved in the game more.
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