With Manchester City only managing a draw against Crystal Palace, Liverpool had the opportunity to go within a point of the league leaders if they could get past Arsenal.
Jürgen Klopp made two changes to the team that eased past Brighton, as Thiago Alcântara and Diogo Jota replaced Naby Keïta and Mohamed Salah. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Mikel Arteta stuck with the exact same starting eleven that beat Leicester City, despite having just three days rest. Arsenal lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
This was the two sides’ fourth meeting of the season, and Arteta tried his fourth different pressing set-up to disrupt the Reds’ build-up. This time around Alexandre Lacazette would push up onto Joël Matip, Martin Odegaard would stick to Fabinho, while Bukayo Saka would push forward to get closer to Virgil van Dijk. This was somewhat similar to their set-up in November, but this time around Cédric Soares would push up to pick up Andy Robertson, rather than leaving Saka to cover three men by himself.
For the most part Arsenal didn’t press though. They sat off in a narrow 4-4-2 and asked Liverpool to break them down.
Liverpool didn’t do a great job of this. With Arsenal playing narrow, there was space out wide for the full-backs to use, particularly on the right as Gabriel Martinelli was pushed back into defence by Jordan Henderson pulling wide in attack, however they didn’t do much with it, mainly looping crosses into the box without doing anything to move Arsenal out of their shape.
Arsenal looked threatening on the counter, with Thomas Partey comfortable enough under pressure to pick out a pass into attack despite Liverpool’s midfielders harassing him, putting Arsenal’s front four through against Liverpool’s back four.
When asked to actually play through Liverpool in their shape, Arsenal offered little though. They would look to trigger Liverpool’s press, drawing the winger inside, then play out to the full-back, who would send the ball down the line to the winger. Arsenal would get the ball in the final third with five men forward as Granit Xhaka joined the attack, but this didn’t put them in a position to threaten Liverpool: the winger would have the ball out by the touchline, with Liverpool’s defence in position and the midfielders coming across to support them, trapping the winger so that Arsenal were usually forced into playing backwards.
Liverpool took the lead early in the second half. Arsenal sitting off gave Thiago the time and space on the ball to slide a pass through to Jota. The Portguese had space thanks to the positioning of his teammates: Soares was drawn wide due to Robertson pushing forward down the left, while Sadio Mané made a run to occupy Ben White, ensuring Jota could receive the ball, attack the box and finish past Aaron Ramsdale from a tight angle.
They then doubled their lead soon after by counter-pressing. Liverpool were on the attack, but Saka blocked the shot and looked like getting the ball away, only for Robertson to block his clearance. The Scot got in behind the Arsenal backline, pushed to the byline and squared the ball to substitute Roberto Firmino to tap in, who nipped in ahead of Gabriel and behind the static White to finish.
It was a slightly disjointed game. Liverpool appeared a little surprised Arsenal were willing to sit back and a little unsure of what to do, but then Arsenal sitting off also gave Thiago the space to set up the opener, essentially handing the victory to Liverpool. Arsenal were arguably the better team in the first half, but at the same time they only threatened Liverpool when the Reds handed them chances through mistakes. The gap in quality between the two teams meant as soon as Liverpool clicked, they punished Arsenal.
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