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As last year’s champions and runners up faced off, at least one of them was going to lose their 100% record.
Arne Slot made one change to the side that beat Newcastle, with Alexis Mac Allister replacing Curtis Jones in midfield, seeing him partner up with Ryan Gravenberch for the first time since Liverpool won the league against Tottenham Hotspur in April.
Mikel Arteta made two changes to the team that thrashed Leeds United, with Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli replacing the injured Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka.
When pressing Arsenal would form a 4-4-2 shape, with Merino pushing up next to Viktor Gyökeres. They would press the centre-backs, while the wingers pressed the Liverpool full-backs, and Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice would stick tight to their opposite numbers in midfield.
Liverpool sought to play around this by forming a makeshift back three. This could be Alisson Becker in the middle as the two centre-backs spread wide, or it could be Milos Kerkez holding back on the left, or it could be Gravenberch dropping into the backline.
Regardless of how they did it, the result was the same: the two Arsenal players were left outnumbered by three Liverpool men, and so were easily played around.
Although Liverpool could easily pass around this initial line of pressure, they struggled to really advance much further though. Arsenal’s midfielders would push up to support the press, but they were wary of not leaving Florian Wirtz in space. One of Rice or Zubimendi would typically hold back and track the German, and on the odd moment where they both committed, a defender would step up.
Cristhian Mosquera, replacing the injured William Saliba minutes into the match, also stuck very tight to Hugo Ekitiké, stepping up so he couldn’t receive the ball by dropping off into midfield.
Arsenal faced a similar predicament at the other end though. Liverpool formed a 4-3-1-2 shape to press, with Mohamed Salah pushing up next to Ekitiké, but Cody Gakpo dropping back in line with the midfielders.
Like Gravenberch, Rice would drop back into defence to outnumber Liverpool’s frontline, while Arsenal would also look to draw Wirtz away from his man to free up a midfielder, with Riccardo Calafiori often tucking inside for this purpose.
Ekitiké would often come inside to help cover the midfielders, but this would just leave Mosquera in space to receive the ball.
Arsenal weren’t having much joy advancing further either though. Like Liverpool, they could play past the first line, but then they still had to break through midfield and defensive lines that remained solid.
Both teams tried going direct as an alternative. Liverpool lost most of their aerial battles against Arsenal’s defenders, while Arsenal tried to target Kerkez, however Noni Madueke had little success against the Hungarian, who had his best match in a Liverpool shirt so far, showing greater restraint in one-on-ones.
The momentum began to really swing in Liverpool’s direction around the 65 minute mark. Dominik Szoboszlai had often come into the centre in the first half, but he seemed to be taking up these narrow positions more and more as the game went on, adding an extra man to the midfield. This meant that when Liverpool went direct, they seemed to have a lot more joy winning the second balls, pinning Arsenal back.
Liverpool appeared encouraged by this momentum change, upping the intensity of their pressure, which only made it harder still for Arsenal to escape.
Szoboszlai bolstering the midfield also helped to free substitute Jones to push forward between the lines, while at one point Kerkez did the same thing too. All of a sudden Arsenal’s midfield appeared outnumbered.
It was this that saw Liverpool take the lead. The Reds played a ball down the line and won the second ball, before playing it back to Virgil van Dijk. With Zubimendi following Wirtz and Rice slow to get across, Van Dijk slipped a pass through to Jones, and Zubimendi gave away a foul as he tried to recover. Szoboszlai then fired the resulting free-kick past David Raya.
Having taken the lead, Liverpool then pulled men back to see the game out.
No one could have complained if the match had finished 0-0, as neither side had created any real chances, yet Szobozlai’s screamer was enough for Liverpool to get their noses out in front, sending them to the top of the table.
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