Arne Slot’s borrowed tactics confounds Arsenal and provides glimpse at more stable future | OneFootball

Arne Slot had waited 18 months for a stalemate and then two came in consecutive Thursdays. The cliché is that they arrived like London buses; the accusation will be that this was Liverpool parking the bus. For Slot, the manager who said it was “hard to hear” that Liverpool had been branded dull and boring, a game that was hard to watch was at least a proof of prowess.

Extending an unbeaten run to 10 games showed a more solid reboot has been a qualified success. A damage-limitation exercise was executed with a studied competence. Liverpool limited Arsenal to an xG of 0.57. They were already the only team to stop Arsenal scoring this season. Now they have done it twice.

Liverpool have had too few clean sheets this season but they have also shut out Real Madrid, Internazionale and Aston Villa. They have shown they can attack and defend well; but rarely both in the same game. Indeed, and for the first time in 15 years in the Premier League, Liverpool failed to register a shot on target, even if Conor Bradley did strike the Arsenal bar from 25 yards.

That apart, it was scarcely proof of the attacking principles Slot had boasted about on Wednesday. He was, though, short of attackers. Yet his approach may have been an indication that the realities of management can make hypocrites of everyone.

Slot has spent the season complaining Liverpool keep facing packed defences. It was a tactic he borrowed. The purist had to show a distinctly pragmatic side; this time, presumably, he will not moan about the defensiveness of one side.

Visiting Arsenal can prompt even the idealists to alter their methods. Before Liverpool, only Manchester City had escaped the Emirates Stadium with a point this season and they did it with an uncharacteristically defensive set-up. It was the day Pep Guardiola aped Jose Mourinho. There may be another compliment for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal here.

They were purposeful, energetic, if not incisive. Liverpool were forced back. They began smothered by the Arsenal press. They were a little more expansive and ambitious in the second half. They ended with more possession.

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Liverpool dug in to keep Arsenal quiets with a stubborn defensive display (John Walton/PA Wire)

But there were also points when everyone was within 40 yards of Alisson’s goal. Slot had insisted his favourite formation remains 4-3-3. This was more of a 4-6-0. And not in the way Luciano Spalletti played 4-6-0 with Roma, either. Slot congested the midfield. He did in San Siro, too. On each occasion, it was a successful ploy.

The lack of a presence up front, however, was because Florian Wirtz played as a false nine. It was scarcely the plan when Liverpool committed £200m to strikers in the summer though much that has transpired at Anfield this season was not what they envisaged.

It meant there were times when William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes had no one to mark. If many a striker has struggled to get the better of the Premier League’s best defensive double act, perhaps there was a logic to fielding none.

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Arsenal’s xG was a paltry 0.57 as Liverpool frustrated the league leaders with a solid defence (Getty Images)

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Liverpool have now taken four points off Arsenal this season despite their ongoing struggles (Action Images via Reuters)

There was also a necessity as Hugo Ekitike joined Alexander Isak on the sidelines. The Swede has spent much of the season there, even if the temptation is to argue he has also often been missing when officially on the pitch.

In effect both teams played without a striker, though in Arsenal’s case that was a sign of how utterly ineffectual Viktor Gyokeres was. He had eight touches, none between the 11th and 40th minutes. The game went on around him, but rarely involving him. At least when Erling Haaland has as few touches, one of them often ends up in the net. The Swede has faced Liverpool twice this season and accomplished nothing. Ibrahima Konate, at least, may have been pleased to see him: two of his finest displays of the season came when up against the lumbering lump in the Arsenal attack.

If centre-backs should not be enigmas, Konate is, but his best remains excellent. Milos Kerkez was tormented by Bukayo Saka at the start but only one of them finished the game and it was not the specialist in scoring against Liverpool. For Kerkez, like Liverpool, there was a reward for grittiness.

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Ibrahima Konate put in a positive performance but was unhappy at Gabriel Martinelli’s push on the injured Conor Bradley (John Walton/PA Wire)

They will end their campaign with four points against Arsenal, though probably too few against many another side. But they could have ended the night 17 points behind Arsenal, which would have been embarrassing. They may yet finish the campaign distanced by still more, however.

Slot had already conceded Liverpool are not in the title race. It was scarcely a grand admission, more an acceptance of the obvious. They have not been in it for a couple of months. The aims have been reframed. Champions League qualification is the target. And, in a sentence that still surrounds surreal, they nudged a point further ahead of Brentford. This season, anyway, Liverpool’s capital rivals are different but they remain the team Arsenal cannot beat.