Arsenal have been heavily criticised after a heavy 5-1 defeat at Anfield, with particularly scathing comments coming from one of their former players.
Martin Keown slammed the defenders in their poor efforts for some of Liverpool's goals, and he also questioned the quality of goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Speaking on BT Sport, he compared the signing of Leno to Liverpool's marquee signings such as Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk, and asked whether he was good enough to play in the team.
'Leno didn’t even make the German squad,' said Keown. 'Is he better than Petr Cech? No I don't think so, but Petr Cech hasn’t played since September.'
Leno made a handful of mistakes in the match, including accidentally kicking the ball out of play when Arsenal were trying to play out from the back. He also got a piece of Mohamed Salah's penalty but couldn't stop it going in.
Arsenal's lack of spending was called into question, especially when compared to the millions of pounds Liverpool spent during the summer transfer window.
'[Liverpool] are shopping in Harrod's, and Arsenal aren't,' said Keown. 'It's £65million for the goalkeeper, £75million for van Dijk. Arsenal are spending £25million for a German goalkeeper who doesn't make the national team in the summer.'
His point was countered by fellow pundit Michael Owen who said that Arsenal have many more areas they need to work on, compared to Liverpool who only had a couple of positions to strengthen.
'If you've only got four or five players you want to build your team around, you have to spread your budget,' said Owen.
Keown believes that Arsenal need more time, and need to do more work to improve: 'Liverpool are in the middle of a project. Arsenal are in the beginning of theirs, and there's a hell of a lot of work to do.'
rbwka
233
Arsenal today
mumablrs
54
Mr Emery has a lot of questions to answer in terms of this miserable defeat. For Christ sake, Leno is really exhausted, he needs to rest and allow Cech to help the team too. Cech is good, focus and determine in every match but he doesn't have playing time since September. What a wicked man Emery! A game like this is meant for Cech because of verse experience and positions of players. He doesn't depend on back players all the time so he is vigilant at goal.
jucabmorz
46
The goalie is as good as his team I have nothing against Leno
ORCHI2113
41
This defeat was necessary. I mean I don't think anyone in his right mind won't accept this defeat. We were just lucky for those 22 unbeaten runs. WENGER is finally out and EMERY will need some real time here. So wait, after all waiting is something we are really good at. LIVERPOOL spent money and time this they are here now. KLOPP has built this TEAM. And I personally can't call ARSENAL a full team yet. They really played like school kids. Giving up to rage like XHAKA or Nudging opponents (that in front of REFEREE), very unprofessional. I hope EMERY gets some budget in JANUARY, after all half of our players are injured anyway.