New season, same old problems?

ARSENAL 3 LIVERPOOL 4

By Ricky Butler from the Emirates

SO A NEW SEASON BUT THE SAME OLD ARSENAL. OR IS IT?

Another summer of inactivity in the transfer market, an opening day defeat; the third in the last four seasons, and yet more unrest from the fans, it would be easy to think that nothing much has changed at the Emirates.

But apart from an awful 15 minute spell just after half time, this was by no means a bad Arsenal performance. Going forward the Gunners always looked dangerous and they certainly showed some courage to fight back from 4-1 down.

While that is nowhere near good enough for a club with title ambitions, it is certainly not the crisis it has been portrayed to be either.

In fact the first half saw Arsenal play some good football against the much-fancied Merseysiders, and they should have been at least two goals clear at the break.

Theo Walcott has suffered a lack of confidence in recent months so it did seem strange when he stepped up to take the 28^th minute penalty, won by Walcott himself after a clumsy challenge from the simply dreadful Alberto Moreno.

To be fair it was not the worst penalty in the world, and was a decent save from Simon Mignolet, but surely Alexis Sanchez or Aaron Ramsey would have been a better option?

Credit the England winger for the quality of his finish just two minutes later, however, with a goal that epitomised all that was good about Arsenal's sharp first half display. A crisp tackle from Francis Coquelin, a lovely through ball from Alex Iwobi and a lovely low finish from Walcott.

But in first half stoppage time, the whole complexion of the match changed.

Yes it was a superb free kick from Philippe Coutinho that flew into the top right-hand corner of the net, but it was the inexperience of young Premier League debutant, Rob Holding, which gave the Brazilian the opportunity to beat Petr Cech from 25 yards.

The former Bolton youngster was too eager, too hasty and needlessly pulled Courinho to the floor. But no one could have foreseen what was to come in the opening period of the second half.

With a centre back pairing with a combined age of just 41 while the leader of the back four rested his weary limbs in the stand, Arsenal simply fell apart.

The quality of the goals from Adam Lallana, Coutinho and Saido Mane should not disguise what would have been poor defending had it been seen on Hackney Marshes on a Sunday morning.

4-1 could easily have 5 or 6 as Liverpool sliced through the inexperienced Arsenal back line at will. But with the home fans turning on their team, the Gunners, inspired by the introduction from the bench of Santi Cazorla, surprisingly recovered to set up a grandstand finale.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had performed well in pre-season and perhaps deserved a start here, scored a marvellous solo effort before Calum Chambers, who had been at fault for at least two of the Liverpool goals, glanced home a free kick from Cazorla.

Three Englishmen on the score-sheet for Arsenal? A rare event indeed.

With the best part of 15 minutes still to play, the Gunners had plenty of time to salvage something from what had been another difficult opening day. But a fifth Liverpool goal looked far more likely in the end as Arsene Wenger's men left massive gaps at the back.

Wenger, approaching 20 years in the hot seat, must have been feeling the heat at the final whistle as the boos rang out around the half empty stadium. To later admit that his team were not prepared for the opening Premier League match will not sit well with supporters who have long been calling for his head.

Liverpool certainly looked prepared as did many of the other title challengers over the first weekend.

So while other clubs have spent millions on reinforcements this summer, Wenger has only brought in teenager Holding and Swiss international, Granit Xhaka, who looked unremarkable from the bench here.

But with key players like Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscienly, Olivier Giroud and Jack Wilshere all set to return it is far too early to right off Arsenal just yet.

They showed enough here to suggest that with a more experienced back four a title challenge is not beyond them. And history tends to suggest that defeat in the opening home match is often the recipe for success here in N5.

Five times from the last seven that Arsenal have lost their opening home match they have gone on to lift a trophy, including two league titles.

Not many at the Emirates yesterday would bet on a repeat come May, but as Leicester showed last season; anything is possible.

Same old Arsenal? Perhaps. But only time will tell.