Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The final game in this Boxing Day Premier League feast takes us to Anfield as Liverpool who started today in fourth place and will ultimately be looking to stay there come the end of the day play host to a Swansea side who are looking to build on the point they earned against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp will probably be asking himself how Liverpool did not come away from the Emirates last Friday without all three points and the answer to that will be the fact that his defence resembled something more akin to the Harlem Globetrotters in the second half.
At 2-0 up and seemingly cruising to a well earned win in North London a mixture of defensive lapses and poor goalkeeping saw the game turn on its head in a wild ten minute spell. The say you are always most vulnerable when you have just scored and that was no less evident after Mohamed Salah had double Liverpool’s advantage.
Joe Gomez who you could argue has been one of if not Liverpool’s best defender this season switched off for just a second but that was all Alexis Sanchez would have needed as he snuck in at the back post to halve the deficit and put Arsenal back in the game.
If that goal was sloppy to concede then Arsenal’s equaliser was poor. Granit Xhaka was given time and space to shoot from roughly 25 yards and Simon Mignolet’s chocolate wrists melted under the pressure of the shot from the Swiss international.
The collapse was in full effect by the time Mesut Ozil had completed the comeback and although Roberto Firmino would at least draw the game level at 3-3 it can only be construed as two points dropped by Liverpool and you have to wonder just how crucial that could be at the end of the season.
There is just a point separating Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal at the start of the day as the race for fourth place currently looks like being one contested by three horses and this is a trio of thoroughbreds who look like taking it to the final furlong
Quite simply dropped points are not on the Christmas menu and they will be hoping that more are served up when basement side Swansea make the trip to Merseyside this evening. Last season the Swans came here and picked up a 3-2 win in what was one of Paul Clement’s first matches in charge.
Paul Clement though is no longer in charge of the club after being sacked eight days ago and it will now be down to Caretaker Manager Leon Britton to see if lightning can strike twice as the South Wales outfit look for the vital points required to make sure they are not cast adrift at the bottom of the table.
There was a positive start to Britton’s stint as manager as he saw his Swansea side come from behind to earn a draw with Crystal Palace. It may have only been a point but it is certainly a step in the right direction after a tough run of results.
However Swansea do not really have time to make small steps they have to start making giant leaps if they are to get out of the drop zone and those leaps come in the way of wins. They may have beaten West Brom recently who themselves have not won in 17 matches but that was only their third win of this campaign.
Not only that but the fact that they have only scored 11 goals this season is something that simply cannot be ignored, if you were to extrapolate to the end of the campaign the club would have scored a paltry 22 goals over the duration of the season.
Someone has to step up and be a hero in front of goal in the second half of the campaign, try as Tammy Abraham might he cannot simply do it alone. Jordan Ayew was on the score sheet on Saturday with a well taken equaliser and he along with Wilfried Bony will need to contribute more going forward in the weeks and months to come.
As I mentioned earlier Swansea came here last season and picked up a win that kickstarted their run up and out of the relegation zone, you get the feeling that something is going to have to happen this evening unfortunately for them I cannot see anything other than a Liverpool win.
