After defeating Liverpool 3-2 at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta’s team demonstrated why they are leading the Premier League standings. Gabriel Martinelli of Arsenal scored the game’s first goal in the opening minute, and despite Liverpool’s two equalizers, they were left down. In the meantime, feel free to check out our pages and dive deeper into the best sports betting websites of October.
The Gunners continue to lead Manchester City by one point and Jurgen Klopp’s team by 14 points; this is a significant deficit for the Reds to close over the course of the rest of the year. Darwin Nunez and Firmino scored goals, and Klopp made tactical changes, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a strong Arsenal team.
Bukayo Saka has been the superstar of Arsenal lately and he has managed to solidify the club as one of the best in the league. Mikel Arteta finds it more and more difficult to deny that Arsenal is competing for the championship this year. Although overcoming a Liverpool squad that has accomplished so much under Jurgen Klopp feels like the statement win this team was waiting for, last weekend’s triumph over Tottenham was outstanding. Because of the fierce energy of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel Jesus, a front three that is now in deadly form, Emirates Stadium has rarely sounded louder.
In contrast, Mohamed Salah put on another reserved performance, remaining on the sidelines the entire time, and Sadio Mane was once again greatly missed since Luis Diaz was forced to leave the game due to injury. At the beginning of the season, Arsenal benefited from a friendly schedule, but they have now developed a winning spirit that has allowed them to defeat two top-four competitors in quick succession. Although Manchester City is unquestionably the favorite to win the championship, Pep Guardiola may find that Arsenal is his biggest competition in the near future. A special mention should also go to Saka, who converted the most significant spot-kick he had attempted since missing for England in the Euro 2020 final shoot-out.
Arsenal continues to improve its presence in the Premier League, slowly chasing after Manchester City. Only nine Premier League games have been played by the majority of teams as of October 1. Liverpool has a game left to play. However, given that it is currently 14 points, Klopp should be extremely concerned about the sheer extent of the margin between Arsenal and Liverpool.
The fact that Arsenal made 46 touches inside Liverpool’s penalty area—more than they did in their previous five league encounters combined—was a sign of their constant threat (44). Under Klopp, Liverpool has only ever given up 48 goals: against Man City in November 2019.
The second half of the campaign is considerably more unexpected due to the unprecedented circumstance of a World Cup dividing the domestic season into two parts, thus points on the board now could prove much more crucial than usual. Liverpool still has plenty of time to bounce back, but Klopp was already pessimistic about his team’s chances of winning the league before this loss, and now they are 13 points behind Manchester City and even ten behind third-place Tottenham. Liverpool has now had its worst start in ten years.
For the first time in 79 games, Jurgen Klopp used a 4-2-3-1 formation against the Rangers instead of his tried-and-true 4-3-3 formation. They won and kept a clean sheet, but using the same setup in this much tougher test was a significant gamble in an attempt to wake up his team’s defensive sleep.
Although they had some control for a good portion of the first half, Liverpool concluded the period with two terrible defensive plays, both featuring Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose flaws have been frequently highlighted this season. This season, Liverpool has now given up the opening goal in 10 of 12 games, and Klopp is still looking for some kind of consistency.
