Former Manchester United captain, Gary Neville, has defended Arsenal’s display against Liverpool, despite suffering another heavy defeat at Anfield.
Neville believes the Gunners will win plenty of matches with that level of performance.
Joel Matip scored from a corner and Mohamed Salah netted twice in a 3-1 win, before substitute Lucas Torreira netted a late consolation goal.
Arsenal have now failed to win on their last seven visits to Anfield, conceding 25 goals in the process. But Neville felt this performance was markedly different from previous implosions.
Speaking on commentary for Sky Sports while Liverpool still had a three-goal lead, he explained: “It’s difficult when you lose 3-0, it feels like you’ve taken a bit of a doing to take positives from it.
“But it feels like a… positive 3-0 defeat, if you could argue that. I’ve seen things today from Arsenal that I quite like.
“They are playing against a brilliant team, let’s be clear. They pushed Manchester City right to the end last season, a monstrous amount of points, and obviously won the Champions League, so we’re talking about one of the best in Europe.
“And that’s told today but from an Arsenal point of view we’re talking about building block by block. And I don’t mind what I’ve seen. Arsenal fans behind the goal might see it differently travelling back to London having lost 3-0. But I think over the season it will bear out that they will do okay.
“It’s the manner of the performance sometimes with Arsenal in the past we’ve been critical of. I’ve not seen that today, they are still going, they’ve not left anything in the changing room, it’s all out there on the pitch.
“I know it’s still a defeat but psychologically, I think even those Arsenal fans are still there, there have been times in the past when they’ve been walking out of here with 15-20 minutes to go, that’s not the case today.
“It sounds a little patronising when you’re a club as big as Arsenal to say there are positives when you’ve lost 3-1 but they are playing against a really good side. And I think this performance from Arsenal today will win a lot of away games this season.”
After Torreira’s goal he added: “I think that’s a big, big goal that for Arsenal. It won’t get them anything out of the game, but it demonstrates a character and a personality that they’re going to keep going. It’s a good moment for Arsenal.”
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