That’s your lot, then. A reminder that Andy Hunter’s report has landed. Here it is. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Mikel Arteta’s turn. “The first half was very competitive. We had moments, and a goal disallowed. We competed well. We needed to be patient and try to build the game in our favour. But we did the opposite. We just crashed and started to give the ball away. They can press and are one of the best teams doing it, but we got sloppy. They were better than us, we have to accept that, congratulate them and learn.”
As for the nose-to-nose exchange of views with Klopp ... “Klopp was defending his team, and I was defending my team. That was that. It doesn’t matter. I have congratulated him. For me the incident stays there, and was just part of the heat.”
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Jurgen Klopp speaks to Sky. “It was an exceptional performance. We grew into the game, controlling it in a really good way and played some exciting stuff. We were really ruthless in the decisive area, and that’s why we won. This league is incredibly intense, and the most intense part is ahead of us.”
As for the locking of horns with Arteta ... “It was absolutely no foul from Sadio, but the Arsenal bench went up like it was nearly a red card. I said: what do you want? I cannot get that any more. I had to take Sadio off against Atletico Madrid because they went only for that, and wanted him to get a yellow card. It is just not OK. The ref did really well, I deserved a yellow card. If there’s a harsh challenge we are all like this. But it was nothing. He didn’t even touch him. It was just two players going in the air. That was not OK, and that’s what I said.”
Some hot manager chat coming up soon, hopefully. In the meantime, Andy Hunter’s report has landed, and here it is.
Trent Alexander-Arnold speaks to Sky. “It’s exactly what we needed, and what we expect of ourselves. We were massively disappointed with the loss [at West Ham] but we bounced back today. A clean sheet, four goals, and a very good performance. They came with two banks of four and were tough to break down, but we broke them down in the end. The first 15, 20 minutes of the second half were as good, pressing wise, as we’ve played all season. That second half was outstanding.”
Liverpool’s victory sends them back into second place. Manchester City can leapfrog them tomorrow with a win over Everton at the Etihad. Arsenal remain in fifth place, with a little daylight now between them and the Champions League places.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 12 | 26 | 29 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 12 | 24 | 25 |
| 3 | Man City | 11 | 16 | 23 |
| 4 | West Ham | 12 | 9 | 23 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 12 | -4 | 20 |
FULL TIME: Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal
Liverpool end Arsenal’s ten-game unbeaten run in comprehensive style. Mikel Arteta may regret going nose to nose with Jurgen Klopp, an incident that whipped up both home crowd and team. The handshake between the managers is purely functional.
90 min +2: White crunches in on Mane. All perfectly legal, and payback perhaps for that kick across the back of the legs just before half time.
90 min: Liverpool play some more keepball. There will be three extra minutes.
88 min: Liverpool stroke it around at half pace. Everyone could do with hearing the final whistle, for one reason and another.
86 min: Not a great deal going on right now, leading Mary Waltz to observe: “Since the match is decided, the only reason to stick around is the post-match managers handshake.”
84 min: Both teams make a change. Elneny comes on for Partey, while 19-year-old Tyler Morton makes his Premier League debut. He replaces Thiago.
82 min: Salah thinks he’s won a corner down the right. But he hasn’t. The sort of decision that would normally raise hackles, but with Liverpool four up, the home crowd let it slide.
80 min: Space for Saka down the right. He slips Tomiyasu away on the overlap. Tomiyasu looks for Aubameyang in the middle, but his cross is way too long.
78 min: That’s Minamino’s first goal for Liverpool at Anfield, and he celebrates accordingly. He’s already scored here, of course, a pearler for Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal (Minamino 77)
What an introduction! Minamino scores 48 seconds after coming on! Salah considers a shot, just inside the box on the right. Instead he feeds Alexander-Arnold on the overlap. Alexander-Arnold fires a low cross into the six-yard box, where Minamino slams home from close range.
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76 min: Liverpool make a double change, replacing Jota and Oxlade-Chamberlain with Minamino and Henderson.
75 min: Partey looks to curl one into the top right from distance. Alisson tips over the bar for a corner, from which nothing comes. Fine effort by Partey, lovely save.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 Arsenal (Salah 73)
Tsimikas flicks a header on down the left. Jota eyebrows another header down the channel, and releases Mane. He races into the box, draws Ramsdale, and squares for Salah, who leaps to sidefoot into the net from close range. That’s a fine goal.
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73 min: A third weird Tavares backpass nearly finds Mane, but Ramsdale hacks clear in time. No matter, though, because ...
72 min: Salah tries his luck again down the inside-right channel but runs slap-bang into Gabriel, who flatly refused to budge. Fine defending. “Not sure if Aaron Ramsdale deserves sainthood, but the defence in front of him are certainly going the way of martyrdom,” quips Charles Antaki.
70 min: Salah goes over in the Arsenal box with Gabriel tugging away at his back. He wants a penalty but he’s not getting one. There was very little in it. Odegaard tries to counter, and is clipped by Fabinho, who receives a yellow card. The timing of the two incidents sends the home fans into an incandescent lather, but both decisions looked correct.
68 min: Salah dribbles into the box from the right. He considers shooting but instead rolls across the box to Jota, who powers a shot towards the top right. Ramsdale makes another superman save, sticking out a strong arm to parry, Gabriel hacking out for a corner. Nothing comes of that.
67 min: Paul Griffin (62 min) might be onto something, because Tavares plays another preposterous blind pass in from the left, allowing Mane to tear purposefully into the Arsenal half. Mane’s pass wide right fails to find Salah, and a fine chance is spurned.
66 min: Lacazette is replaced by Odegaard.
65 min: Laczette threads a lovely pass down the inside-right channel for Aubameyang, who enters the box and shoots low from a tight angle. Alisson kicks clear. Better from Arsenal, who haven’t done much in this second half so far.
64 min: It’s tipping down on Merseyside. In addition, Tsimikas, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago take turns in short order to rain in the crosses. Eventually Ramsdale puts a stop to the torrent by claiming.
62 min: A slow restart to the game as Liverpool stroke it around the back. “Tavares must be missing a brain cell,” sings Paul Griffin, because somebody had to.
60 min: Looks like Jota has taken a whack on the knee, while poor Ramsdale took one in the fruit bowl. Both men finally get back up and are good to go.
58 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain finds Salah inside the box with a cute pass down the right channel. Salah flicks inside for Jota, who takes a heavy touch with only Ramsdale to beat. Jota and Ramsdale clatter into each other, both entitled to go for the loose 50-50 ball. Both stay down.
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57 min: Salah dribbles hard down the right. He hooks back for Alexander-Arnold, whose shot is blocked. Arsenal can’t clear, under pressure from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jota. The ball breaks to Mane, who shoots towards the bottom right. Ramsdale parries, and stops Salah slotting the rebound. The flag then goes up for offside on Mane.
55 min: Thiago nicks the ball off a dozing Tomiyasu out on the left. He strides into the box but his shot from ten yards is blocked by White, standing firm. Arsenal are struggling to deal with the Liverpool press right now.
53 min: Anfield is bouncing. Arsenal react by replacing Lokonga with Maitland-Niles.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (Jota 52)
Tavares strips Alexander-Arnold down the Liverpool right. He turns, cuts inside and plays a blind ball across the face of his own box, straight to Jota. Jota strides into the area, sits White down, drops a shoulder to dummy Ramsdale, and slots into the unguarded net. What a cool finish ... but what a mistake by Tavares.
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50 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain is sent scampering down the left channel by Fabinho. He enters the box, opens his body, and steers a shot just wide of the bottom-right corner. Liverpool soon come again, Salah unable to get a crisp shot away from a tight angle on the right. The ball nearly squeaks through to Mane, but Ramsdale smothers bravely at his feet.
49 min: Alexander-Arnold latches onto Tavares’s loose pass out from the back, but his cross fails to beat first man Gabriel. He had plenty of team-mates in the middle to look for, as well. An uncharacteristic error.
47 min: Smith Rowe nearly releases Aubameyang down the inside-right channel. Van Dijk slide-hooks away just as the Arsenal striker prepares to shoot. Very close to the perfect start to the second half for the visitors.
Arsenal get the second half underway. Liverpool are kicking towards the Kop. No half-time changes.
Half-time entertainment. There were fast starts for Steven Gerrard and Dean Smith, plus a six-goal thriller at Newcastle ... but the big story developed at Vicarage Road as Manchester United unravelled yet again. Oh Ole. Oh Harry.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
It’s been a passionate affair, with Sadio Mane in the thick of everything, one way and another. He’s instigated a brouhaha between the managers, scored with a fine header, and sparked off another touchline spat, this time involving a few miffed Arsenal players, for kicking White. He walks off chatting to the opposition. The second half promises to be a lot of fun; whether Mane sees it out is another issue altogether.
45 min: There will be one added minute.
44 min: Mane takes a late whack across the back of White’s legs. Several Arsenal players discuss the matter in depth with both player and official. Just a booking. Half time can’t come soon enough for quite a few folk, all of whom are on a rolling boil.
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43 min: Saka makes off down the right again and rolls infield for Lokonga, who whistles a low drive straight at Alisson.
41 min: Arsenal try to hit back immediately, Saka working his way along the byline to the right of goal and pulling back for Smith Rowe. Just as Smith Rowe shapes to shoot, Oxlade-Chamberlain slides in and hooks clear.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Mane 39)
Matip is clipped by Aubameyang out on the right. Free kick. Alexander-Arnold curls to the far post. Mane meets the ball six yards out, steering his header across Ramsdale and into the bottom right! Anfield erupts. The place has been bubbling since the spat between Klopp and Arteta, to be fair.
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37 min: Alexander-Arnold exchanges passes with Thiago, cuts in from the right, and sends a rising shot goalwards. Ramsdale tips over the bar, one for the cameras. His broad smile is extremely photogenic too. The corner is dealt with easily enough, and Arsenal counter. Lacazette has got Aubameyang and Smith Rowe free on the left, with only Fabinho back! But Fabinho slides in to block tackle Aubameyang, and that’s a quite sensational last-man challenge.
35 min: Another outrageous Ramsdale save, as Mane skates down the left and rolls infield for Salah, whose close-range shot is blocked by the keeper. Salah tries to force home again, but Ramsdale extends a telescopic arm and pushes it away from danger. Partey bashes behind for a corner, and you know how those have been panning out this evening.
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33 min: Mane goes up for a ball with Tomiyasu. A hint of a flapping arm. It’s a garden-variety free kick, nothing more, but it incenses Arteta so much that he gets right up in Klopp’s grille, offering the Liverpool boss a square go. Klopp responds with some hot chat. Arteta has to be pulled away, then held back! Eventually they calm down, and are both booked. They’re still muttering away as they return to their respective benches.
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31 min: Smith Rowe releases Aubameyang down the inside-left channel with an outrageous defence-splitting backheel. Aubameyang draws Alissoon and rolls across for Lacazette, who ostentatiously slams into the empty net. But he knows Aubameyang was clearly offside, and up goes the flag.
30 min: Nothing comes of the set piece.
29 min: Alexander-Arnold crosses from the right. Arsenal fail to clear. Thiago tries a volley towards the bottom right. He doesn’t catch it, but Ramsdale fumbles. Mane tries to force it home, but the prone keeper sticks out a strong arm to deflect out for a corner.
27 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain strides purposefully down the inside-right channel and opts to take a dig. He gets plenty of meat behind his shot, but it’s deflected out for another wasted corner.
26 min: In the technical area, Mikel Arteta relays some beneficial advice to Partey in the agitated style. An intense Spanish manager micro-managing? Should bring back a few memories for the home fans.
25 min: Salah bursts into space down the right and finds Alexander-Arnold, who fizzes a low cross towards Jota, in a crowded six-yard box. Jota can’t quite reach the ball and Saka hacks behind for a corner, from which nothing comes.
23 min: It’s good end-to-end fun, this. Saka runs at Van Dijk again, with similar results. He had options in the middle, too.
22 min: Salah drops a shoulder to move in from the right. Oxlade-Chamberlain takes over, steaming into the box, but his shot is blocked by Gabriel.
21 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain busies himself down the right and crosses deep for Mane, who can’t direct his header goalwards from six yards.
20 min: Salah romps into space down the middle, Oxlade-Chamberlain having nicked the ball off Smith Rowe. Salah gets the ball stuck under his feet, so tries to tee up Jota, at which point the flag goes up for offside.
18 min: Free kick for Arsenal, 35 yards from goal. Instead of sending it into the mixer, Saka pulls back for White, who attempts to release Tavares down the left with a raking pass. Too much juice, and it flies out for a goal kick, but full marks for training-ground imagination.
17 min: Tomiyasu crosses from the right. Saka stoops to head home from six yards, but Oxlade-Chamberlain arrives to block, just in time. Arsenal very close to taking the lead there.
16 min: White shuttles the ball down the middle. Lacazette attempts to flick it further on for Saka, but doesn’t guide it in the right direction and the ball ends up with Alisson.
15 min: Lacazette bowls Mane to the ground, 30 yards out on the right. Another free kick. Alexander-Arnold swings it in. Matip clumsily clatters into the busy Tomiyasu and it’s a pressure-releasing free kick to Arsenal.
14 min: Jota finds Salah just inside the Arsenal box on the left. Salah takes a touch but can’t work space to shoot. He flashes across the face of the box, but neither Thiago nor Oxlade-Chamberlain can connect.
12 min: Mane and Tsimikas try a combination down the left, but Tomiyasu ensures the door is firmly shut. Mane tries again, getting a yard on the defender and winning a free kick. Tsimikas sends the set piece into the mixer, Van Dijk heading harmlessly wide and high.
10 min: Liverpool pass it around the back again, showing more patience. With Arsenal holding a firm shape, they’ll probably need plenty of it. Salah tries to release Fabinho down the right, but the pass is too heavy. Goal kick.
8 min: Aubameyang finds space down the left and gets a cross in. Lacazette challenges Thiago at the far post, too enthusiastically as it turns out. A foul and a chance for Liverpool to gather themselves.
7 min: Saka makes good down the right. He’s got options in the middle, but also Van Dijk on his case. Van Dijk wins out this time, but that situation looked dangerous for a minute and will give Saka and Arsenal encouragement.
6 min: Liverpool pass it around the back patiently. Bob Paisley would appreciate this.
4 min: White strides upfield but has the ball picked off his toe by Oxlade-Chamberlain, who finds Salah. The Premier League’s leading scorer drags an uncharacteristically lame effort wide right.
3 min: Van Dijk goes long down the left. Tomiyasu’s defensive header is poor and drops to Tsimikas, who considers shooting from the edge of the box but opts to look for Mane instead. His pass is off and the danger is cleared.
2 min: A rare old afternoon-pints atmosphere at Anfield. Liverpool are kicking towards the Anfield Road end in this first half; Arsenal the Kop.
Liverpool get the match started ... but only after everyone takes the knee. There’s no room for racism.
Before kick-off, there’s some warm applause in memory of Louis Bimpson, who played for Liverpool during their dismal Fifties, but still scored 39 goals. Bimpson, who also played for Blackburn Rovers, Bournemouth, Rochdale and Wigan, died earlier this week at the age of 92.
The teams are out! Liverpool prefer to wear red, so Arsenal, similar of mindset, sport retro yellow with old-school cannon badge, a lovely late 70s / early 80s homage. We’ll be off in a couple of shakes, but in the meantime here’s Gunners fan Charles Antaki: “There’s little profit being reasonable in predicting a win at football at any time, so one might as well put all one’s chips on 10-0 to the Arsenal, at least until the opium haze of pre-match enthusiasm dissipates with the first Liverpool goal. The last match between the two ended 0-0, I think you said? That’ll do as the prudent fan’s prediction aspiration.”
Jurgen Klopp speaks to Sky. “It’s an opportunity. It’s a strong opponent. We’re not bad as well, so we really want to give it a go. We have played worse games than West Ham and won them, but we should not concede three goals. That’s something we are working on, and we have to show today that extra percentage of desire and passion. Organisation is good but in the little moments we have to win the challenges, especially with the counter-attacking threat of Arsenal.”
Mikel Arteta talks to Sky Sports. “It always helps when confidence is high and results are good. But it is a different game, and we will have to be at our best to get a win here. Liverpool are one of the most creative teams in the league and you have to be aggressive and have really good organisation and control to minimise the potential they have.”
Wolverhampton Wanderers have just beaten West Ham United 1-0. The result moves Wolves into sixth spot, but more importantly gives Liverpool and Arsenal the chance to make up ground on David Moyes’ high flyers. A draw would be enough to send Liverpool third at the Hammers’ expense, on goal difference, while a Liverpool win would take them into second spot, two points ahead of Manchester City, who host Everton tomorrow. An Arsenal win would see the Gunners leapfrog Liverpool into fourth, where they’d be level with West Ham on points but behind on goal difference (unless they win 10-0 tonight, but come on, be reasonable).
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 12 | 26 | 29 |
| 2 | Man City | 11 | 16 | 23 |
| 3 | West Ham | 12 | 9 | 23 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 11 | 20 | 22 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 11 | 0 | 20 |
These two teams have history. So do we, and here it all comes together with a couple of old Joy of Sixes to pass the time before kick-off.
Liverpool make two changes to the team that went down 3-2 at West Ham. Andy Robertson is injured while Jordan Henderson is only fit enough to make the bench. Thiago and Kostas Tsimikas take their places.
Arsenal make one change from the 1-0 win over Watford. Thomas Partey returns from injury, Ainsley Maitland-Niles dropping to the bench.
The teams
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Thiago, Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah, Jota, Mane.
Subs: Konate, Henderson, Minamino, Phillips, Gordon, Kelleher, Beck, Morton, Bradley.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tavares, Saka, Sambi Lokonga, Thomas, Smith-Rowe, Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Tierney, Odegaard, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Cedric, Pepe, Elneny, Martinelli.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
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Preamble
Liverpool versus Arsenal usually brings the goals. Here are the scorelines of the last ten matches between these two giants at Anfield: 5-1, 2-2, 3-3, 3-1, 4-0, 5-1, 3-1, 5-5, 3-1, 0-0. OK, the last one ended 0-0. But you get the general point.
Both sides go into this one with confidence. The Reds have been rattling in the goals against all and sundry so far this season. They even managed two, and probably should have scored three, when having the seat of their trousers handed to them at West Ham a fortnight ago. Arsenal meanwhile, after a slow start to the season, are unbeaten in ten and looking good for it too.
Mikel Arteta thinks his men will win this evening if they “raise their game”. Jurgen Klopp will be desperate for his side to bounce back from their first major setback of the season. This could be a lot of knockabout fun. Apologies in advance if it ends up 0-0 again. Kick off is at 5.30pm GMT. It’s on!
