Match report – Player ratings – By the numbers – Video

If, in the few minutes before half-time, you’d offered me a draw I think I would have taken it. As it was in the end, there was frustration that we couldn’t find the breakthrough having dominated the second period and done everything but score.

The pre-game story was that we were without Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny through illness and injury respectively. It meant a competitive pairing of Calum Chambers and Gabriel for the first time, and when Coutinho hit the bar inside the first three minutes you couldn’t help but be worried.

However, that initial flurry by the visitors was followed by a period when we settled down and played some nice stuff. Alexis should have put us ahead but he bounced a header over the bar from close range after a final Monreal cross. Then a beautiful Santi Cazorla pass for Aaron Ramsey saw the ball in the back of the net, but it was ruled out for offside – a poor call by the linesman who flagged him off when he’d clearly timed his run well.

After that, however, the shakiness at the back and a carelessness on the ball that spread throughout the team invited pressure. Last ditch tackling from Francis Coquelin was hugely important, and as the half went on Petr Cech was the man to thank as he kept us in it with two outstanding saves. The fingertips to touch Coutinho’s shot onto the bar were spectacular, but the close range stop to prevent Benteke giving them the lead was absolutely outstanding. We were lucky to go into the break level.

The manager admitted afterwards that he did think about taking Calum Chambers off at the break, but kept faith and the 20 year old had a much more settled second half. Gabriel grew into the game well, negated some of Benteke’s threat and the fact we were better on the ball meant we were able to play large swathes of the game in their half.

They defended well but rode their luck too at times. As the game went on we found a bit more space, Alexis hitting the outside of the post after an excellent set-up from Giroud; Ramsey forcing Mignolet into a couple of decent saves; Giroud really should have done better with a couple of opportunities – one in particular I thought he was fouled as he went to shoot but nobody seemed to appeal; Skrtel could have scored an own goal; and Oxlade-Chamberlain fizzed a low shot to the near post which the Liverpool keeper pushed away.

It’s little wonder after the game, Cech praised the second half performance (especially in comparison with the first), but said:

The number of chances we create in the second half, when we played more in the Liverpool half, this is something that’s positive, but obviously we need to be more efficient and clinical in front of goal.

The introduction of Walcott for Giroud was ‘tactical’, according to Arsene Wenger afterwards, but I have to wonder, not for the first time, if bringing on a player whose key weapons are pace and the ability to exploit space is the right move when you’ve got an opponent that is sitting deep. I know you have to try something to get the goal, but I just don’t have any faith that what Walcott gives you in those circumstances is enough.

And that’s not a criticism of him, per se, but the lack of attacking variety/options on the bench. Two defensive midfielders of 30+, two full backs, a winger like Walcott and an attacking midfielder in Oxlade-Chamberlain doesn’t provide you with enough if you are struggling to score.

Yet Cech’s point about being more efficient is spot on. I don’t think Alexis is anywhere near 100%, he missed two glorious chances last night on top of the ones he missed against Palace. His work-rate and desire were impeccable in the second half, but when those chances come in games like this we have to put them away.

The service to Giroud was hit and miss but he perhaps if he showed as much desire to make something happen as he does when he complains about a pass being slightly off-target he might be a more efficient forward. I do like him, but more and more he feels like he’d be the perfect guy to come off the bench and provide a different kind of threat when we need it in games like this.

There was a lot of talk post game about how Ramsey on the right doesn’t work, but I thought he was one of our most effective players last night. He should have had a goal to his name, he worked really hard down that side defensively, won 4 tackles, and looked to make things happen at the other end of the pitch, yet it’s easy too to understand people wanting to see Oxlade-Chamberlain on the pitch too.

Would it mean dropping one of Ramsey, Cazorla or Ozil, or could you use Alexis as a striker to make room for the qualities the Ox brings? That gives you a Giroud option from the bench if you need it, but it’s not an easy one whatever decision is made. It’s certainly something to think about though.

Defensively we struggled last night, I think the importance of the Mertesacker/Koscielny partnership was obvious. When you have a central defensive pairing that’s generally assured and calm, it transmits itself throughout the side. Chambers first-half problems seemed to put the heeby-jeebies up those around him – thankfully not the keeper though. Afterwards the manager said:

In the second half he did well. He’s a good footballer and he will come out of that stronger, with the belief that when he had difficult moments he can come out of it stronger.

Gabriel looked good alongside him, a strong, quick, sneaky, cynical defender who will take a yellow card in the right place and who got to grips – literally at times – with the physical threat of Benteke. But a young player of 20 can always have a game like that, it’s part of the education, so there’s an onus on the experienced players at the other end to do their stuff – and from an attacking point of view we were rather blunt once more.

If you take into account the tail-end of last season, that’s five of the last six games at the Emirates in which we haven’t scored. That’s now a problem. I don’t think it’s a case that they feel extra pressure or are intimidated by the atmosphere or expectation, it’s just a matter of finishing better. We had 19 attempts last night, only 5 on target. Against West Ham it was 22 attempts with 6 on target.

Against Sunderland (0-0 on May 20th) we had 28 attempts; Swansea (0-1 on May 11th) 23; Chelsea (0-0 on April 26th) there were 11. So in those five games in which we’ve failed to score we’ve had 103 attempts at goal and failed to score a single one. I don’t think it’s an issue of creativity, it’s one of finishing.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the players we have are capable of better than that, but it’s very difficult to argue against the idea adding something extra to our striking options might also be a way of improving those statistics. Benzema is not going to happen, it was never going to happen, but something should before the transfer window closes on Tuesday at 6pm.

We feel a little bit like car that won’t start. We can keep turning the key and firing the engine in the hope that it will, or we could give ourselves a push to help us start chugging down the road. We are in a race and Man City, in their top of the range saloon, are already cruising a bit too far ahead of us. We dropped too many points at the start of last season to be title contenders, already we’ve let slip 5 from 9, and unless we do something about it soon, it’s going to be another campaign that falls short.

It sounds a bit ludicrous to say it after three games, but that’s the reality of it. Next up is an early afternoon kick-off in Newcastle on Saturday, where nothing less than three points will do.

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James and I will be here with an Arsecast Extra for you later today. As ever, if you have questions or topics for discussion, send them to @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra.

Until then.