Having lost just one league game to Arsenal since Jürgen Klopp’s arrival on Merseyside, and even that result came after The Reds had already won the Premier League and had nothing left to play for, Liverpool would usually have been confident of a result coming into the match, but that wasn’t the case this time around.
After an improvement in mid-week against Rangers, Klopp stuck with the exact same starting eleven. Liverpool had resembled more of a 4-2-4 shape against Rangers, but here it was much more clearly intended to be a 4-4-2, with the wingers dropping back to defend.
Having rested players in their Europa League clash with Bodo/Glimt, Mikel Arteta returned to the team that beat Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby, with the only change being Takehiro Tomiyasu replacing Oleksandr Zinchenko at left-back. Arsenal set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Arsenal took an immediate lead. They pressed Liverpool high and eventually forced Alisson Becker into kicking long. William Saliba managed to cut out the ball though and played into midfield, catching Liverpool with their four attackers ahead of the ball. Thiago Alcântara stepped up to pressure but was too far away to stop Ben White from turning out and passing down the line to Bukayo Saka. Jordan Henderson had done the right thing in coming across to cover behind Thiago as he pressed, but he remained pulled across to the left, as if he wanted to double up on Saka even though Virgil van Dijk had him under control, allowing Martin Odegaard to make a run away from him untracked. Saka poked the ball through to the now free Odegaard, switching play to Arsenal’s left where Gabriel Martinelli and Granit Xhaka were bursting forward on the overlap. Already overloaded, the odds were against Trent Alexander-Arnold, but he proceeded to make matters worse by squaring up, meaning he would have to spin a full 180° in order to meet Martinelli’s run in behind, which was already unlikely due to the speed of his arrival. Odegaard poked a pass through and the Brazilian finished past Alisson Becker.
Last season Arteta tried four different pressing set-ups against Liverpool, but he evidently felt as if he had found a working one in the final clash in March, as he mimicked it here. Gabriel Jesus would pick up Joël Matip, Martinelli on Alexander-Arnold, Odegaard on Henderson, Saka tucking inside on Thiago and Ben White on Kostas Tsimikas. This would obviously leave Van Dijk free, but if the Dutchman was passed to, Saka would step up to pressure him while blocking the pass into Thiago behind him, and Odegaard would typically shift across to cover behind him.
The main flaw in this set-up was that having White step forward to pressure Tsimikas left space behind him, and so Liverpool often played over the top into this gap.
By the mid-way point of the half, Liverpool were starting to look comfortable. Arsenal maintained this same shape, but they were also dropping deeper and deeper having taken the lead, ensuring that they pressed with little intensity. This was particularly noticeable on the left, where Martinelli was consistently miles away from Alexander-Arnold when the Scouser received the ball. With Arsenal neither pressuring the ball nor dropping back into a more compact shape, Thiago and Henderson found themselves able to play through the centre, while Alexander-Arnold frequently had the space to pick out passes.
Liverpool were also perfectly happy to simply play over Arsenal in a bid to attack the space behind them, knowing that with four dangerous attackers making runs they could threaten Arsenal’s backline. Arsenal often had Granit Xhaka, and to a lesser extent Thomas Partey, drop into the backline though, adding an extra man to provide cover.
Liverpool equalised with one of these direct passes in behind. A stretching Gabriel Magalhães only got a weak touch on a looping Alexander-Arnold pass, allowing Luis Diaz to run in behind and square the ball to Darwin Nuñez to finish, as the Uruguayan had sprinted ahead of Gabriel to attack the box.
Arsenal retook the lead just before half-time though. They countered from a Liverpool free-kick, getting three-versus-three against what remained of Liverpool’s backline. Martinelli was running at Henderson with the ball, but Liverpool’s captain appeared to have him covered, blocking his path inside onto his stronger right foot, forcing him to go down the outside. Once Martinelli attempted to push past him down the left, Alexander-Arnold came sprinting across to cover, deserting Gabriel to confront Martinelli when Henderson was still looking comfortable. Arriving at such speed, Alexander-Arnold was unable to slow down though, overshooting it as Martinelli cut onto his right foot and passed to Saka at the back post to finish, with Tsimikas forced across to cover Gabriel thanks to Alexander-Arnold’s poor decision.
Alexander-Arnold’s stupidity was obvious, darting across when Henderson appeared to be in control, but it turned out he was right not to trust his captain as Henderson went sailing past the Arsenal winger despite his obviously telegraphed cutback onto his right, meaning neither he nor Alexander-Arnold were in a position to stop him. Matip ran back but slowed to crawl when it came time to actually stop Martinelli, although at least he made an effort – Van Dijk could barely muster a jog despite it being plain to see that Liverpool’s backline were going to be outnumbered as Odegaard burst forward to join his teammates. Despite it not being his job and starting much higher than Van Dijk, Nuñez got closer to helping out Tsimikas than the Dutchman who increasingly appears to think putting in any kind of shift is beneath him. All Liverpool had to do was hold out for one minute, but they couldn’t even do that.
With Diaz and Alexander-Arnold succumbing to injuries at the end of the half, Diogo Jota was moved to the flank as Roberto Firmino partnered Nuñez in attack, while Joe Gomez came in at right-back.
Liverpool soon equalised again. They played through Arsenal’s press by finding Gomez on the right because Martinelli had tucked so far inside, and he passed inside to the midfielders, who were left with the time on the ball to advance. Having pushed forward to press, Saka was slow to retreat, leaving Jota in space down the outside of Partey, and so, with as much time as he needed, Henderson found the Portuguese, who controlled the ball and slid a pass through the gap William Saliba had left. The Frenchman had adjusted his feet in an attempt to cut out a pass direct into Firmino’s feet, but in doing so this opened a space behind him, so Jota simply played the ball through there instead for Firmino to run onto and finish.
Having gotten back on level terms, Liverpool sat back to defend. Fabinho came on in place of Mohamed Salah, partnering Thiago as Henderson moved to right midfield, while Ibrahima Konaté replaced Matip at centre-back. This was obviously done with the intention of shoring up the side defensively, but it completely killed off Liverpool as an attacking force, with Henderson not only less talented than Salah but also no longer having the legs to get up and down the pitch.
It didn’t even work though, as Arsenal claimed victory with a penalty. Alisson managed a double save to stop Arsenal, but the loose ball fell to Fabinho, stood ball-watching with his back to play, to clear. The Brazilian managed to spin and get the ball away, but took so long doing it thanks to his lazy body shape that Odegaard was on top of him, and he could only scramble it as far as Martinelli on the edge of the box. Martinelli spread the ball wide to Xhaka, who crossed into the box where Thiago swung at the ball to clear it but only hit Jesus. The penalty has been derided as soft because Jesus was barely touched yet went down as if mortally wounded, but it’s difficult to have much sympathy when Thiago has fundamentally kicked an opposition player rather than the ball.
Arsenal were miles behind Liverpool for years, but rather than doing the work to stay on top, Liverpool stood still and are now being surpassed by the kind of young and hungry team they resembled a few seasons ago.
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