Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 2 Arsenal 1 on the 2024-2025 pre-season tour of the USA…
THEY got what they wanted.
The trick of the mind is that Liverpool are in the US all the time.
It’s actually the first time in five years. And five years ago Mo Salah didn’t even feature.
They got what they wanted. Because they got a Mo Salah goal. Not only did they get a Mo Salah goal but they got a quintessential Mo Salah goal, an opening goal where he is in for what feels like half the pitch before calmly nestling the ball beyond the goalkeeper at the best possible moment.
Mo Salah scored Mo Salah’s goal for the 60-odd thousand who had descended on the Lincoln in Philadelphia. Mo Salah – giving the people what they want since 2017.
It was also the goal Liverpool had just about deserved since the 10th minute or so. There are a couple of turning point moments in those first 10 minutes that don’t turn. Arsenal should open the scoring with what gets presented to them. They don’t and Liverpool grow in confidence and crucially keep playing.
Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones form the sort of bedrock which, reader, I can’t help but find exciting. They talk and talk, screen and screen. They build play and back play up. It’s a partnership and it works.
It came as a surprise. There had been no sense that Szoboszlai may be pressed into service deeper and it may well prove to be something which the manager knocks down by the time this comes out.
That said, it may well suit Liverpool to view Szoboszlai the way Manchester City use Bernardo Silva – he’ll be what the game needs at any given time on any given day.
Regardless, the game from Liverpool’s point of view is better for them both in harness.
But it is Harvey Elliott who makes two significant contributions with lovely assists. This is his job in this shape and he does it brilliantly, the second a looping treat for Fabio Carvalho to finish with aplomb.
At the back, Jarell Quansah is the absolute business and my player of the match. His reading of the game is exceptional, timing of every tackle different class and he is key to Liverpool getting in 2-1 at half time.
There is a bit of shadow boxing second half before Arsenal assert themselves around the hour mark and use the width of the pitch well. Liverpool are keeping it less well after the substitutions and Arsenal begin to hurt them. But Liverpool stand firm.
Kelleher makes a great save on 67 and Arsenal get another decent chance from a corner but then the raft of changes happen around the 72nd minute and that’s sort of the end of a game.
Another game then starts. That’s the way it works at the time of year. Arsenal keep a few more senior players on for longer, but in general finish the game ever so well. They will be a threat for all the major honours.
We shouldn’t get carried away, but we can see that we might just be too. And that will do for tonight. Apart from one thing…
We should end at the start. There is an impeccably observed minute’s silence for events in Southport before a ball is kicked which shows respect and decency across this thing of ours. In this instance, this thing of ours is just the collective human experience, and rejecting brutality, rejecting the inhumane and standing together is the least we can ask for.
Philadelphia has been a treat in all the ways, but that last one is the best and the most important. Living up to what they say about it.
All my (brotherly) love.
