A 12th Premier League win in a row for Liverpool - equalling the club record of consecutive victories.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, speaking to Sky Sports: “It was a brilliant game from my side so early in the season. It was outstanding. It was a performance full of power, energy, greed and passion, which I think you need to have against a team like Arsenal. "We were a bit surprised by their system. We couldn’t know that they would play a diamond, but we switched things around and coped very well. “The last 10 minutes I saw the possession - 53 to 47 or something like that - but over 80 minutes it must have been completely different. For 80 minutes we were completely in charge of the game."
Since Jurgen Klopp took over in October 2015, Liverpool have scored 26 goals in eight Premier League games against Arsenal - the most one side has netted against another in the competition in that period. Only Everton at Arsenal (64) have conceded more away goals against a single opponent in the Premier League than Arsenal at Liverpool (62). Arsenal have now failed to win any of their past 23 away league games against fellow 'Big six' sides (D8 L15) - during this run they have conceded 53 goals while keeping just one clean sheet. Since the start of last season, Arsenal have given away eight Premier League penalties - only Brighton (10) have faced more. Liverpool have scored 22 headed goals in the Premier League since the start of last season; seven more than any other side. The Reds have scored three in this campaign already, while no other side has scored more than one. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has faced Arsenal eight times without defeat in the Premier League (W5 D3). Mohamed Salah has been directly involved in more Premier League goals against Arsenal than against any other side (eight; six goals and two assists). He has scored in all four of his home games against them. Trent Alexander-Arnold has assisted nine goals in his past 10 appearances at Anfield for Liverpool in all competitions, including assisting once in each of his past five competitive home games. Nicolas Pepe has become the first player to successfully dribble past Virgil van Dijk in the Dutch defender's past 50 appearances in the Premier League, since Mikel Merino in March 2018 for Newcastle.
Unai Emery is now in his second season at Arsenal and they still have no identity and no style of play. I've heard some pundits give him credit for keeping Liverpool mostly at bay in the first half. However, he had to completely change what they do in order to do so. He had an entire week to prepare for the trip to Anfield, and the plan he came up with was to abandon their attacking style, leave one of his star strikers on the bench, pack everyone into the middle of the pitch, and allow our fullbacks to have the ball in miles of space. This is just a testament to how good Liverpool are. A manager that has top four aspirations knows that he has absolutely no chance of beating us under normal circumstances. From Klopp's first game in charge it was clear what direction Liverpool were heading in. Even before we were good, we had a style of play and an identity as a football team. We never wavered from the way we played, especially against the better teams in the league. In fact, with our style, we always played even better against the best teams in the league. Right now Arsenal, Man United, and Chesea are not even in the same league as Liverpool and City. There is also no light at the end of the tunnel for them. They don't have a clear plan or any idea where they are heading.
I went to the store this afternoon and saw a guy wearing a ManU shirt. I rolled down my window and said, "Too bad, man." He smiled sheepishly. I grinned. I don't think he could tell I was wearing a grey Liverpool t-shirt.
I’ve heard some ridiculous excuses from players and managers to explain away fouls, but Emery and Luiz’s excuse that it was only a little shirt pull and not worthy of a penalty was up there in the top two or three. Adopting the reverse often helps: would Emery have been so forgiving if it had been VVD on Pepe? Thought not.
Anyone else think that Salah's penalty technique makes life very difficult for the keeper? He nearly runs into 3 counties before approaching the ball, keeping the keeper guessing the whole way.
I think that's an excellent analysis of both Arsenal and Liverpool, or perhaps the styles of management of Klopp and Emery. We knew when Klopp came on board what we were getting - heavy metal football or a variant thereof. With Emery, Arsenal thought they were getting a very successful Spanish manager who was always going to struggle against the big two, but had shown the nous to be successful in Europe. Yet what have they now? A decent forward line, a so-so midfield and a defense that was bolstered by the arrival of....Luiz! And a style of football that's best described as unconvincing or uncoordinated. They're good enough for 4th-8 place and will need luck/help to make the CL.
Yup from the beginning the big question about Klopp was not the style of play he'd apply in the prem, but rather would his style work in a faster, more physical league with a more unforgiving schedule. Yesterday was another good example of the fact that net-net, it works rather well. You can contain us for a bit but its a mighty tough ask over an entire match.
Many years ago, I was watching a match where a direct free kick was awarded and the ball went into the net about 12.683cm from the left post and about 7.342cm below the crossbar. The comms said that had there been TWO goaltenders, they wouldn't have been able to stop that shot. Same thing yesterday.
Have you heard this one from Sideshow himself? Yes- he's blaming the size of the shirt for giving away the pen To be fair, I knew it was the extra large shirt all along. And I would've got away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids. https://www.foxsports.com.au/footba...h/news-story/bbf2f40a10cfa142dc94ed94ca11b5fa
Was able to watch the match (the first 70ish of it anyway) and was quite impressed with how sharp we looked, especially after how disjointed we were all preseason. One observation on Salah - last year when he was in a bit of a 'quiet' phase, he was trying to play quite central and his favorite move was to 'post up' on a defender somewhere around the 18. This season he is playing what I'd call 'outside in,' starting wide and finding space and forcing defenders to follow him there and attacking the middle from there. He is so devastating when he plays this way.
Klopp noted that he was excited have a full week of training with the team for the first time in a while - said it would really allow for tactical prep time.
Matip's goal, as noted by Opta, was the 22nd headed Premier League goal that Liverpool have scored since the start of last season. That's seven more than any other side.
A result of good service from the FBs? This service also leads to more corners which leads to even more headed goals..
Risky though - unless you are a very accurate striker of the ball into the high net as all those damnGerman penalty takers used to be.... Ziege and Moeller and Effenberg, etc If Salah is good at that kind of shot (maybe he's been practicing lately) he'd do it more often - rather thna some of the weak (very lucky ones) he's made that have luckily come off.... Wonder where he'll put the next one....
After just 3 games we are already 5 points ahead of Tottenham, Man United, and Chelsea. Arsenal are 3 points behind, but clearly not in our league. This season is already shaping up to be like last season... a two horse race. I don’t think it even matters if we are a better than City. Sometimes it seems like they tear apart opposition with more ease, but both teams are miles ahead of everyone else. The title is going to come down to who is more consistent, more focused, and more relentless. We already know that we can beat them head to head even though we failed to do so last season. Our dominant second half in the Community Shield is a good sign for our matchups this season. It’s the two best teams in Europe fighting it out for the league again. We should also be two of the favorites in the Champions League.