That’s your lot, then. A reminder that Andy Hunter’s report has landed. Here it is. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Liverpool ended Arsenal’s ten-game unbeaten run with a masterclass in pressing
Updated
Sat 20 Nov 2021 15.12 EST
First published on Sat 20 Nov 2021 11.30 EST
Live feed
Key events
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.