Returning to a wide spot for the first time in weeks, Jordan Henderson found himself, like so many of his Liverpool teammates, overrun and overwhelmed at the Emirates. After surviving Arsenal's early onslaught the makeshift wingback started to have more of an impact, at least relatively speaking during the visitor's lone spell of comfort in the match, and later he managed to get more involved after shifting centrally and netted his sixth goal of the season after some smart work by Raheem Sterling won a penalty.
But nothing could bring Liverpool back from the Arsenal flurry late in the second half that saw the hosts go from level at 0-0 to 3-0 up in a span of eight minutes. It blew the visitors away, and for Henderson, it was the type of spell that could have a lasting impact if solutions--and relatively immediate ones at that--aren't found:
"To concede three goals in such a short space of time is not good enough. I'm sure we'll work on that in training. We've just got to be a little bit more aggressive, defensively, and then also in the final third, be more ruthless.
"We knew it was going to be difficult [to finish in the top four], even before we came here, but it makes it even more difficult. That doesn't mean we'll just give up. We've got seven games left now and we need to try to win every one. If we do that, then you never know.[Blackburn] is another big game for us straight away. We've got to recover well, learn from this one and move on and try to get a big win on Wednesday.
They've got no other choice if they're going to advance to the semifinals of the FA Cup, with Blackburn more than capable to getting a result. As they proved during their visit to Anfield, they won't be overwhelmed by the occasion, and since that 0-0 draw they've managed three wins from five. Their two losses both came at home, however, conceding three to Brentford and losing 1-0 on a Matt Kilgallon own goal.
But as Henderson mentions, Liverpool's focus needs to remain on themselves and the necessary improvements from yesterday's loss. Rodgers has some adjusting that's both forced and necessary, and with seven matches left in league and three possible in the FA Cup, there's plenty of time to secure a strong finish.