Arsenal Match Centre Archives: 08/2016

With the majority of things in football, once a team is successful in adopting an approach to winning – others follow suit.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain enjoyed a great pre-season and he looks as if he might be transferring that into a league campaign for the first time in a long while.

You wouldn’t think you could learn anything from a performance that was a carbon copy of a thousand we’ve watched before, but we did.

The Swiss midfielder got his first start for the Arsenal and did not disappoint.

It only took a matter of minutes to see exactly what Arsenal were missing last weekend against Liverpool, the dogged determination to defend consistently well throughout.

Is it “Arsenal get a point away to the champions” or “Arsenal lose two points away to a team trying not to be relegated”?

Arsenal travelled to Leicester knowing that if they were to stop an implosion in their fanbase, they dare not lose.

Can a game be ‘must win when it’s only the second of the season?

Mark Clattenburg, the referee with a Champions League tattoo who is regarded as the best referee in England, will take charge of Arsenal’s first ‘must-win’ game of a season that will only be two games old this weekend.

It’s a case of bouncing back as opposed to building momentum as Arsenal prepare for another tricky test, this time at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Picking an Arsenal team when you’ve got choices is enough to drive you crazy. We give it a go anyway.

Simon Mignolet told the Liverpool Echo that they had studied Arsenal’s penalties ahead of the game on Sunday although he wasn’t sure how much it would help given the absence of normal penalty takers on the pitch.

Apparently, Liverpool ran 117.6km in total during their match against Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday.

Theo Walcott has now scored in 10 different Premier League seasons, just one less than Dennis Bergkamp.

The season might be new, but the Arsenal story, alas, is not. Here are nine things we learned as Arsenal lost at home to Liverpool

It probably won’t surprise you to know that there has been more penalties missed in clashes between Liverpool and Arsenal than any other fixture.

Arsenal’s worrying 4-3 loss to Liverpool at home on Sunday once again highlighted how vulnerable we are from range.

To Arsenal fans’ surprise, Granit Xhaka didn’t start against Liverpool but when he came on with 24 minutes left to play, he made his mark on the game.

It was most definitely a day to forget for Arsenal v Liverpool, especially as we took the lead and squandered it in spectacular fashion.

It’s started! Did you miss it? Theo tripping over the ball in front of the goal? Coquelin living on the edge of a red card for 60 minutes? So exciting!