The Spaniard's ground strokes are as potent as ever, and he has added variety and greater defensive security with a rapidly-improving sliced backhand.
Piniella benched Soriano, his $18 million left fielder, indefinitely on Friday because Soriano's inflamed left knee had helped turn him into an even greater defensive liability.
In came Carroll, Craig Bellamy, Maxi Rodríguez, Sebastián Coates, Jay Spearing and Glen Johnson, who along with the fit-again Agger offers hope of greater defensive solidity for the weeks ahead, while the Dane, Luis Suárez, José Enrique, Jamie Carragher and Dirk Kuyt dropped to the bench.
Perhaps an element of complacency crept in, perhaps Arsenal slowly shook themselves out of their daze and began to play, perhaps the replacement of Arshavin with Emmanuel Eboué gave them a greater defensive presence on the right; certainly those seemed to be the commonest explanations.
The 26-year-old, who will be flanked by Eric Dier as England seek greater defensive surety, was initially appointed captain at Liverpool by Brendan Rodgers at the start of last season and retained the role under Jürgen Klopp over a campaign badly disrupted by injury.
There was more than a hint of that in Bale's greater defensive work during the first half of the recent Clasico against Barcelona.
