A deserved 1-0 win for Liverpool, through an absolute wonder strike from Dominik Szoboszlai, may just have left a scar on ugly Arsenal. For Liverpool, this may prove a statement win and leaves them top of the league, having taken maximum points from their opening three games.
Whilst far too early in the season to be considered pivotal, you sensed from the outset that neither felt they could afford defeat and both teams played through a first half hesitant to take risks. Rather like a game of chess, moves were made to block and frustrate the opponent and, other than a glaring opportunity for Virgil van Dijk to shoot fron inside the penalty box, there were very few real moments of jeopardy. A smart save, low to his right by Alisson was as close as the defending champions came to being breached in front of the Kop.
Arsenal, rarely expansive when away from home to the Premier League’s biggest teams, played as if under duress, persisting with an ugly brand of football, largely consisting of little more than Stoke City on steroids. Long balls, set pieces and time wasting were the sum of their ambitions. Mikel Arteta is now more Mourinho than Guardiola, despite his tutorage under the Spaniard.
The second period saw Liverpool more on the front foot. Mo Salah however, was guilty on several occasions of taking a heavy touch, looked leggy. Alexis Mac Allister, robbed of the ball numerous times in the first half by one of three Arsenal defensive midfielders, was replaced on the hour by Curtis Jones. Ryan Gravenberch’s influence on Liverpool’s more progressive play grew as space in midfield became easier to come by, and a winner for the champions in front of the Kop looked likely.
The visitors meanwhile, looked content to leave Merseyside with a point and, even when Arteta eventually gave Eze his Gunners debut, his side remained rigid. Indeed, when Eze did find himself in space in Liverpool’s penalty box he chose to fall to the floor. Perhaps he was merely mirroring so many other Arsenal players who spent so much time sitting on the turf. Ultimately the refusal to turn up and play, so often Arteta’s undoing in the decisive games, cost them once again.
Liverpool had been awarded a free-kick, some 32 yards from goal, with less than ten minutes remaining. It was one of the few occasions in which the referee seemed to remember he could punish fouls by both sides, as the Premier League witnessed yet another poor display of officiating.
Up stepped Szoboszlai, who’d been phenomenal deputising at right-back, striking the free-kick with such precision that Raya could do little, as it went ‘top bins’. It was a deserved lead and, despite the seven minutes of added time in which late substitutes, Wataru Endo, Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez, more than played their part in seeing out the game, Arsenal were beaten.
