Arsenal run scared in season of defeat and disintegration

Losing at Anfield has left Arsène Wenger's side 25 points behind Chelsea and adrift of the Champions' League places. Sam Wallace reports on a failure of footballing nerve

The admission from Freddie Ljungberg that his Arsenal team were "scared" to play the kind of football against Liverpool on Tuesday night that has characterised Arsène Wenger's best sides was a welcome moment of honesty in a disintegrating season. But quite how Arsenal recover a season that now finds them 25 points adrift of Chelsea will require a solution that this selection of players appears unable to provide.

All the faults that have threatened to derail Wenger's side were attendant in a defeat on Tuesday night that, although richly deserved, Arsenal came close to avoiding. The senior players, Ljungberg principal among them, failed to extend any kind of meaningful influence with Thierry Henry, Robert Pires and Gilberto Silva more culpable than most. And when they play as they did against Liverpool they invite the old criticisms that the club are finding impossible to purge this season: that this is not the same side without Patrick Vieira and that the midfield, without Abou Diaby, was intimidated and outfought by Liverpool.

With Harry Kewell among their ranks, not to mention a profligate Fernando Morientes, the home side were not without their own unpredictable characters, but while the Australian winger flourished it was Pires and Ljungberg who scarcely registered their influence.

Their ninth league defeat of the season, Ljungberg said, was built on "a lot of long balls" by Liverpool, although that was uncharitable to a side who consistently got behind Arsenal's full-backs and were kept at bay by an exceptional performance from Jens Lehmann in goal.

"It wasn't beautiful football but we ended up playing the same way," Ljungberg said. "We probably both deserved one point so to concede a goal the way we did, making a small mistake right at the end and getting punished for it, was hard for us. If people say we're not the team we were, that's a valid point.

"We know that teams will want to try and play a physical game against us, with a lot of long balls like Liverpool did. But it's our responsibility to try to get the ball down and play with it. Unfortunately, I think that we've maybe become a bit scared of holding the ball and that means we just end up kicking it long as well.

"That's not our way of playing and not our strength. It's not a good thing for us to end up playing like that. You saw that from the beginning of the game, even though we didn't feel anybody deserved to win, which made us even more disappointed with it."

That declaration of loyalty from Thierry Henry last month is not, of course, legally binding although just as Steven Gerrard made demands of his side last season, so too the prospect of their captain's departure appears to hang heavy over the Arsenal side. Last season, Liverpool were placed on trial by Gerrard and challenged by their captain to prove that they deserved him - under the same burden with Henry, Arsenal appear to be struggling.

"We fought quite hard but it hurts to lose like that," Ljungberg said. "We have lost seven games away from home and that is definitely too many. You know whenever you play Liverpool at Anfield it's going to be difficult. I'm not looking at the rest of the games we've played away, because we have been poor, but winning at Anfield is always difficult.

"We tried to do the best we could. We have a lot of guys having to play in different positions, especially at the back. They're not used to it and they're doing the best they can. It's difficult having to cope with the injuries we've got. But we should still not have lost at Liverpool.

"There have been games this season where we have deserved to lose. And when we are being made to pay for making mistakes, we know we need to work on them and solve them."

Tottenham and Liverpool still have to visit Highbury, but of more pressing concern to Wenger would have been the performance of Real Madrid on Tuesday night. They eventually went out of the Spanish Cup but not before they had put four goals past Real Zaragoza in a performance led by David Beckham. Both Real and Arsenal have been in difficulties of late. By the time they meet in the Champions' League on Tuesday it looks like it will be the Spanish side who are in better shape.

At a loss: Arsenal's last nine games

League Cup: Wigan (A) Lost 1-0

Premier: Middlesbro' (H) Won 7-0

Premier: Everton (A) Lost 1-0

League Cup: Wigan (H) Won 2-1

(aggregate score 2-2; Arsenal lose semi-final under away goals rule)

FA Cup: Bolton (A) Lost 1-0

Premier: West Ham (H) Lost 3-2

Premier: Birmingham (A) Won 2-0

Premier: Bolton (H) Drew 1-1

Premier: Liverpool (A) Lost 1-0

Total: Won 3 Drawn 1 Lost 5