More from Klopp, who goes on to praise the incredible work rate of his players. “Our identity is intensity and that’s how we showed up today. I qwould have loved to have had a clean sheet today, but Arsenal is a quality side. They didn’t have that many chances. We were really in charge and won the game comfortably.”
The losing side weren’t quite as “Arsenal” as they can sometimes be, but were still overwhelmed by the European champions at Anfield
Sat 24 Aug 2019 14.45 EDT
First published on Sat 24 Aug 2019 11.15 EDT- Match report: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
- Full-time: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
- GOAL! Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal (Torreira 84)
- GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 Arsenal (Salah 59)
- GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (Salah 49pen)
- Penalty for Liverpool!
- Second half: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
- Half-time: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
- GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Matip 41)
- Liverpool v Arsenal is go!!!
- Two changes on each side
- Liverpool v Arsenal line-ups
- Premier League: Liverpool v Arsenal
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- Match report: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
- Full-time: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
- GOAL! Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal (Torreira 84)
- GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 Arsenal (Salah 59)
- GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (Salah 49pen)
- Penalty for Liverpool!
- Second half: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
- Half-time: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
- GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Matip 41)
- Liverpool v Arsenal is go!!!
- Two changes on each side
- Liverpool v Arsenal line-ups
- Premier League: Liverpool v Arsenal
Jurgen Klopp speaks: “I saw a brilliant game from my side so early in the season,” he says to Sky. “It was outstanding. It was a performance full of power, full of energy, full of greed, full of passion. We were a bit surprised by the system they played, but we adapted well to the diamond with switching the sides and constant crosses.”
Match report: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
Paul Wilson was on hand to see another Liverpool masterclass as Arsenal were put to the sword for the fourth time in consecutive visits to Anfield.
Joel Matip speaks: “It was a tough game against a deep standing and a high quality team,” says the scorer of Liverpool’s first goal in an interview with Sky Sports. “If a team with these kind of players with such quality is standing on [the edge of] their box with eight players, it’s hard to break through.”
On the subject of Arsenal’s pacy attackers, he says it was really hard to defend against them on the counter-attack, because they’re such good players.
Full-time: Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeep! It’s all over at Anfield, where Liverpool have maintained their 100% record for this season with a win over Arsenal that could scarcely have been more emphatic until they took their foot off the gas. Joel Matip opened the scoring, before Mo Salah added two more. Lucas Torreira scored a late consolation for Arsenal, who were overwhelmed by a vastly superior team for long periods of this game.
90+3 min: Free-kick for Arsenal, about 30 yards from the Liverpool goal, almost dead centre. David Luiz tries his luck, but it’s not his day. He sends the ball high over the bar, into a jeering Kop.
90+1 min: Presumably they’re all exhausted, but I haven’t been hugely impressed by the manner in which Liverpool’s players have finished this game. There’s been a noticeably large and predictable drop in intensity, but they’ve let Arsenal get themselves back in the game by scoring one goal and then creating a scoring chance that went unconverted by Lacazette moments ago.
87 min: Crikey! Ainsley Maitland-Niles floats a cross to the far post, where Lacazette chests it down unmarked. With a better first touch, he’d have had a clear shooting opportunity with plenty of goal to aim at. With the ball at the byline, he pulls it behind him and then appeals for a penalty for - I think - a possible handball by Trent Alexander-Arnold. The chaps at VAR HQ aren’t inclined to throw him a bone. That could have made for a very interesting final few minutes.
86 min: Arsenal substitution: Matteo Guendouzi off, Henrikh Mkhitaryan on.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal (Torreira 84)
From a corner, the ball is worked to Lucas Torreira in the Liverpool penalty area. He gets the ball stuck under his feet under pressure from Jordan Henderson, eventually digs it out and stabs a shot from 10 yards into the bottom right-hand corner.
82 min: Salah cuts in from the right again, before playing the ball to Roberto Firmino with his back to goal in the Arsenal penalty area. As he tries to turn, Xhaka dispossesses him and the Brazilian goes to ground. His appeals for a penalty fall on deaf ears and Anthony Taylor waves play on.
80 min: Arsenal attempt to salvage some pride, with Monreal lofting a ball towards Aubamayang in the penalty area. Liverpool clear. Arsenal substitution: Alexandre Lacazette on for Joe Willock. He takes a central position up front, with Nicolas Pepe to his right and Aubamayang to his left.
77 min: Liverpool substitution: a beaming Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on, Sadio Mane off. And why wouldn’t the Ox be smiling? His team is 3-0 up and he signed a new extended deal during the week.
75 min: Nicolas Pepe sends a left-footed cross to Aubamayang, who was ghosting in towards the far post. Milner heads the ball out for a corner. Nothing comes of it.
74 min: On their past four visits to Anfield, Arsenal have lost 5-1, 4-0 and 3-1. They’ve been dreadful on at least two of those occasions, but are actually playing reasonably well today. Liverpool are just much, much better than them. I’ll be surprised if there aren’t a couple of more Liverpool goals here, as Arsenal’s players look absolutely shattered and dead on their feet.
71 min: Jordan Henderson picks out Firmino with an excellent pass down the inside left. He curls a cross towards the far post, where Salah is waiting, but Arsenal clear their lines.
70 min: Salah sprints into the Liverpool penalty area from the right with the ball at his feet again. Instead of shooting, he attempts to square the ball for Mane at the far post and his pass is cut out by Sokratis.
70 min: Having come out for the second half, snarling and snapping like the hounds of hell as they went about Arsenal, Liverpool have calmed things down a notch.
69 min: Firmino tries to pick out Mane with a cross into the Arsenal box. It’s intercepted and headed clear. Liverpool substitution: James Milner on for Gini Wijnaldum.
67 min: Maitland-Niles and Pepe combine down the right, with the latter trying to pick out a Aubamayang with a cross. Adrian smothers the ball in a warm embrace.
65 min: Through on goal with Matteo Guendouzi all over him like a cheap suit, Mo Salah is flagged for offside. If he’d stayed on he’d have either scored or won another penalty.
64 min: Arsenal win a corner, then another after a Monreal header is put out by Alexander-Arnold. Nothing comes of it.
63 min: Arsenal substitution: Dani Cabellos, who has barely had a touch of the ball, makes way for Lucas Torreira.
62 min: Roberto Firmino tries a shot from the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, as Liverpool continue to overwhelm their opponents. Bernd Leno saves.
61 min: Signed to shore up the Arsenal defence, David Luiz is not having one of his better days. Having given away the penalty that led to Liverpool’s second, he allowed Salah to take possession and turn him out on the touchline for the third.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 Arsenal (Salah 59)
Salah scores his second. He picks up the ball on the right flank, beating Luiz and Monreal in the process. Cutting inside, he bears down on goal and with options to his left he slots the ball into the bottom left-hand corner. It’s a very composed finish.
58 min: “You can see he’s a talent but this game is just passing him by,” adds Neville, talking about Dani Cebellos, who is doing nothing.
56 min: Firmino tries a shot from the edge of the penalty area, but it’s blocked. Moments later, Andy Robertson sends a cross to the far post from the left flank. Mo Salah beats his man, but heads over the bar. Arsenal are getting spanked here. “This Liverpool team is just destroying them,” declares Gary Neville, who is on co-comms alongside Martin Tyler on Sky Sports.
54 min: Sokratis goes to ground winded after throwing himself in front of a Trent Alexander-Arnold pile-driver. Referee Anthony Taylor graciously gives him a few seconds to catch his breath.
52 min: Bernd Leno is forced to rush out of his penalty area and hack the bvall clear after Nicolas Pepe was dispossessed in midfield and Liverpool galloped upfield on the counter in a four v two. Arsenal could get absolutely mauled here.
50 min: I’m a huge fan of David Luiz, but his reaction to being penalised for what was an obvious yank on Salah’s shirt was comical. He was caught, quite literally, red-handed with a fist full of his man’s scarlet shirt but still feigned innocence and was outraged at having a penalty awarded against him.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (Salah 49pen)
Mo Salah doubles Liverpool’s lead, sending Bernd Leno the wrong way as he rifles the ball into the top left-hand corner. You won’t see a better penalty kick than that.
Penalty for Liverpool!
David Luiz is penalised and booked for pulling on the shirt of Mo Salah in the Arsenal penalty area as the Egyptian tried to get on the end of a wonderful Roberto Firmino pass.
46 min: Liverpool immediately go on the attack and Bernd Leno is forced into a smart save.
Second half: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
46 min: Arsenal get the ball rolling for the second half, playing into the Kop end. There are no changes in personnel on either side.
An email: “Genuine query from a suffering fan,” wrote Abhijato Sensarma, before Arsenal went behind. “Do you think Arsenal have a genuine chance of winning the EPL?” No, none whatsoever. Next!
Half-time: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
Peep! Liverpool go in at the break with a one-goal lead, the all important strike a Joel Matip header from a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner on 41 minutes. Arsenal have been dominated, but not without chances - the pick of them coming when Nicolas Pepe found himself in a one-on-one with Adrian, only to come up short with a feeble shot straight at the goalkeeper.
45+2 min: Salah plays the ball to Mane in the Arsenal penalty area, continues his run and picks up the return pass. Under pressure from Guendouzi, he sends the ball wide from a tight angle.
45 min: Replays of the goal show that as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s delivery was fizzing into the penalty area, Arsenal’s defenders were so worried about containing Virgil van Dijk, that they actually got in each other’s way. Grabbing the front of Dutchman’s shirt and refusing to let go, Sokratiss outstretched arm actually prevented Guendouzi from marking Matip, who jumped for a free header.
42 min: Well, you can’t say that wasn’t coming. Liverpool’s full-backs have been given licence to roam and even though it was from a se-piece, it was one of their crosses that helped the home side opened the scoring. Matteo Guendozi was caught napping as Joel Matip leapt to get on the end of Alexander-Arnold’s delivery and send a bullet header past Bernd Leno.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Matip 41)
Liverpool lead. Trent Alexander-Corner sends the ball into the mixer from a corner and Joel Matip heads home.
39 min: From a throw-in, Mo Salah rolls Granit Xhaka in the Liverpool penalty area before sending a low diagonal drive flashing inches wide of the far post.
38 min: Andy Robertson drops a good delivery towards Firmino at the far post, but David Luiz intervenes to avert the danger.