Five Truths: Dejan Lovren wants to be David Luiz, Arsenal’s woes continue

Dejan Lovren clearly isn’t happy about David Luiz getting all this limelight. The Croatian’s 17-minute cameo threatened to be as chaotic as that of his alliteration ally when he invited a wave of Everton attacks and spread fear throughout the Liverpool ranks in the Merseyside derby.

Tom Davies struck the post after Lovren had invited a cross, Dominic Calvert-Lewin almost scored a diving header after Lovren had lost his man from a corner, and Richarlison forced Allison into a terrific stop after Lovren had got his feet tangled twice in five seconds.

Still, it’s a bit unfair to focus solely on the future Ballon d'Or winner. At least he tried to make the game interesting, something we can’t say about the other 29 players involved. And while we’re at it, let’s defend Mr Luiz too…

After he was publicly shamed for his atrocities at the Etihad, you could have been forgiven for thinking Luiz was the only thing wrong at Arsenal. But there’s so much more. There’s no disgrace in losing to Manchester City, but following it up with a reversal against Brighton when things are meant to be on the up?

There’s no creativity with Mesut Ozil still strangely absent. There’s no leadership with their captain wanting out. There’s no defensive shape. And there’s no end to their injury woes which are so frequent, you have to wonder if it runs deeper than just bad luck.

Weirdly, with just two centre-backs available for the trip to Southampton on Thursday – Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding – Luiz would be a very welcome addition right now.

Timo Werner must have feared he would be playing Europa League football next season when Kortney Hause swivelled to fire Aston Villa into a shock lead against Chelsea. He will be feeling a lot more relaxed now.

Chelsea and Wolves are the only sides in the race for the top four – that is, sides from Leicester in third to Tottenham in 9th (sorry Crystal Palace and Arsenal) – to claim victory since the Premier League’s reboot. There are now five points between them in fourth and fifth-placed Manchester United, an important buffer given Manchester City, Leicester and Liverpool all await Frank Lampard’s side.

Of the 11 matches since Project Restart, a ridiculous SEVEN have been goalless at half-time. It’s hardly surprising. Going from a three-month break to a Premier League match in an empty stadium, via a very restrictive pre-season, is basically impossible.

But given how much is at stake and how important points won in these early rounds could be, you do wonder if the not-so-grand return was a little bit rushed. There’s yet to be a single match where we’ve thought, ‘yep, that was absorbing throughout’.

…but even with the caveat that the players are being asked to do too much too soon, these drinks breaks are a complete nonsense. It was 11°C in Merseyside and yet the game had two mandatory stoppages for liquid chugging.

If we want the famous tempo of Premier League football to return, you can’t have a break plonked in the middle of each half. Sure, if it’s actually hot, then by all means stop for a swig. But just because it’s June doesn’t mean it’s unbearable. This is England after all.