Key events
Liverpool remain top of the league. And though Jurgen Klopp will be frustrated that they missed the opportunity to put Arsenal out of the title race, he knows how to turn failure into fuel. Injuries or not, it will be a surprise if Liverpool play as poorly again this season.
A quietly crucial part of the game was how well Arsenal defended in the 25 minutes between their second and third goals. No visible nerves, no difficult saves for David Raya. This might be the best defence they have had since Sol Campbell was in his pomp.
Full time: Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool
Arsenal close the gap on Liverpool to two points after a deserved victory over a subdued Liverpool. It was a slightly odd game, with some very weird goals, but Arsenal were much better in the first half and good enough in the second.
90+7 min “Many times during this match I expected Arsenal to lose their heads or at least their concentration, but they’ve stayed focused all through the game,” says Kári Tulinius. “Mentality monsters.”
That’s a low blow. Next you’ll be saying they’ve played heavy-metal football.
90+6 min Havertz is booked for perceived timewasting.
90+4 min Rice wipes out Jota, I think, and is booked.
Trossard slipped Elliott on the left, moved into the area and drove a left-foot shot that took a nick off Van Dijk and went through the legs of Alisson at the near post.
At first I thought it was a goalkeeping error but the deflection made it so much trickier. It might go down as a Van Dijk own goal because I’m not certain Trossard’s shot was on target.
GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool (Trossard 90+2)
Leandro Trossard nutmegs Alisson to seal a – sod it – huge victory for Arsenal, and Mikel Arteta is off down the touchline like Fingers Mourinho 20 years ago!
90 min Nunez is booked for dissent. He was clearly pulled back by Gabriel, who should have been given a second yellow card. Liverpool can have no complaints about the result but they’re right to be aggrieved by that.
Saliba is also booked for something or other.
89 min It’s getting niggly Van Dijk puts Havertz on the floor while winning a header and then kicks him as he lands. It might have been accidental; it might not. VAR can’t guess so that’s the end of that.
Konate is sent off!
88 min He gets a second yellow card for a foul on Havertz, who has been a pest all afternoon. Jurgen Klopp gives a sarcastic thumbs-up.
85 min: Liverpool substitution Thiago Alcantara replaces Joe Gomez, which means Luis Diaz becomes Liverpool’s fourth right-back of the week. They’ve missed Conor Bradley today.
84 min Kiwior heads straight at Alisson after a superb pass/cross from Odegaard on the edge of the area. “What’s he doing there?” says Gary Neville. Moments later Nunez beats Havertz on the right side of the area but lashes an absurd shot into orbit. The angle was prohibitively tight and he had support in the middle.
83 min Here’s Gabriel Martinelli’s goal, although with the greatest respect to Peter Drury, a better soundtrack would be the Curb Your Enthuasism theme.
81 min Mac Allister’s cross is too close to Raya, far too close.
80 min Arsenal have kept Nunez extremely quiet so far. In fact they’ve been more comfortable defensively since Jurgen Klopp made that triple change in the 58th minute.
78 min: Arsenal substitution Reiss Nelson comes on for a limping Bukayo Saka. It looks precautionary, or just fatigue, rather than anything serious.
77 min: Just wide from Mac Allister! A Liverpool corner is headed up in the air towards Mac Allister on the edge of the D. He throttles a volley that goes through a crowd and almost sneaks in the corner. Instead it rolls just wide.
76 min “At the risk of this becoming a music rather than football blog,” says Richard Hirst, “may I point out that Deep Purple in Rock wasn’t released until 1970, so Dean Kinsella must have time travelled.”
So we’re into psychedelia now?
75 min: Arsenal substitution Leandro Trossard replaces an aggrieved Gabriel Martinelli, who had a fine game even before he scored Arsenal’s second.
74 min Arsenal are sitting deep, trying to limit the space for players like Nunez to run into. This might be a job for Thiago Alcantara and his eye-of-the-needle passes.
73 min “Like the venerable Simon McMahon, I’ve also just recovered from the rugby yesterday,” writes Matt Dony. “But I would suggest we had different experiences. Still, everything’s rosier today. I mean, it’s not like one of Liverpool’s finest-ever defenders and a truly world-class goalkeeper will combine to give up a ridiculous goal, is it? Oh.”
73 min If it stays like this Arsenal will be two points behind Liverpool, whose only league defeats this season will have been in north London.
72 min “Dare I counter Dean Kinsella?” says Joe Pearson. “There wasn’t a heavy metal genre in 1968, because Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin had yet to create it.”
How many times: they were not on Sarah Records.
70 min Kiwior is booked for a foul on Jota.
Gabriel, deep in his own half, pumped a long angled pass towards the edge of the Liverpool area. It bounced awkwardly between Van Dijk and the outrushing Alisson, with Martinelli sniffing, but nobody could have foreseen what happened next.
Van Dijk, off balance after a slight but almost certainly legal shove from Martinelli, missed the ball, and then Alisson ran straight past it on the edge of the area. That gave Martinelli an open goal, a gift he accepted with joyous disbelief.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool (Martinelli 67)
Gabriel Martinelli, who scored the winner against Manchester City earlier in the season, has put Arsenal ahead after a bizarre error from Alisson!
64 min Havertz makes a great run into space down the left, moves into the area and goes down after a tangle of legs with Mac Allister. Anthony Taylor says no penalty and the VAR team agree.
As Gary Neville says on Sky, Havertz’s loose touch allowed Mac Allister to get between him and the ball. Havertz does so many impressive things, but he’s not a killer.
62 min “Sorry, gotta take issue with Deep Purple’s categorisation,” says Dean Kinsella. “Back in the day they were labelled as a ‘hard-rock’ band. Not sure heavy metal even existed as a genre in ‘68 (when I first bought a copy of their fantastic ‘Deep Purple in Rock’ album). The clue is in the name of the album. Oh no! Am I a nerd now?”
By the end of this game somebody will be claiming they were on Sarah Records.
61 min A corner is headed over by Havertz; at the other end, Diaz sweeps a shot straight at Raya from 15 yards. Both were very difficult chances.
59 min “Thanks for your half time mention of le grand carré’ midfield of the French team in the 1980s,” says Richard Hirst. “I loved it then (France v Brazil 1986, one of the great games), knowing and loving it does wonders for you when you live in France, and under Jean Tigana, Fulham played their most attractive football. Reasons to be cheerful, one, two, three.”
58 min: Triple substitution for Liverpool Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez come on for Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo. That means Joe Gomez will move across to right-back. I guess Alexander-Arnold isn’t yet fit enough to play a full 90 minutes.
57 min Gakpo spins behind Gabriel, who puts an arm across his face and is booked.
