Photo Credit Getty Images/ Stuart MacFarlane

By Paul Stevens.

Sometimes in football your team wins a football match. It could be a huge game, at a vital time in the season, a key cup semi final. Sometimes it is against a title rival or against a team that always finds a way to beat your side.

A statement win and Arsenal secured the most dictionary defining statement win on Sunday afternoon. A win of such magnitude that it will solidify the notion that Arsenal truly are the best team in the country as it stands.

Arsenal had not won at Anfield in fourteen years. Mikel Arteta had not won there as a coach for the Gunners, and Declan Rice admitted after the match that he had never won there as a player.

All of that changed with Arsenal’s victory on Sunday evening. The Gunners produced a truly impressive opening 15 minutes that stunned the Anfield faithful into near silence. On field, a composed and efficient Arsenal display had forced Liverpool’s team back deep into their own half.

Arsenal’s opening goal came as the direct result of the opening 15 minutes of relentless running and pressing off the ball. Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker attempted a risky pass into midfield and Martin Odegaard pounced.

The Arsenal captain quickly found Bruno Guimaraes who curled a sumptuous pass off the outside of his right foot. This found Noni Madueke on the Arsenal right.

Madueke waited for the supporting overlapping run of Declan Rice before playing a ball in behind the Liverpool backline. The following cross from Rice was inch perfect, dissecting the space between six-yard line and goalkeeper.

All the Liverpool defence missed the fierce low delivery, but timing his run to perfection, Kai Havertz arrived at the back post and cooly side-footed the ball into the Liverpool net, right infront of the stunned Kop stand.

Liverpool responded well to the goal and practically dominated the rest of the first half, while Arsenal wasted three excellent opportunities to counterattack by not completing the decisive action. The home sides’ performance forced Arsenal deep into their own half and the Gunners simply could not get out for large periods.

Bradley Barcola had some dangerous moments, but it wasn’t until Virgil van Dijk flicked on a corner that fell at the feet of striker Alexander Isak, that Liverpool even threatened. David Raya was alert and forced the ball out of play before the striker could get a shot away and the danger passed.

Florian Wirtz hit the bar with a speculative free kick from a wide position as the half wore on, then Liverpool created their best chance of the entire match.

Milos Kerkez sent a wonderful cross in from the Liverpool left. Onto the ball ran a completely unmarked Alexis Mac Allister, who somehow managed to head the ball over the Arsenal crossbar from eight yards out.

The Gunners took their hard-fought lead into the half time break and came out and produced a magnificent second 45 minutes. A second half of champions.

Liverpool created next to nothing, while Arsenal worked relentlessly to block shots and make vital tackles in order to defend their own box. This limited any of Liverpool’s attacks to speculative half chances at best.

The Gunners created the better of the chances in the second half with Christos Tzolis who crossed for Martin Odegaard when perhaps he should have shot.

Then Tzolis played a brilliant pass behind the Liverpool defence, which allowed Riccardo Calafiori to cross into the box looking for Kai Havertz. The delivery required a last-ditch defensive block from van Dijk to deny Havertz his second of the game.

Finally, the biggest chance fell to Tzolis who pounced on some truly terrible Liverpool defending after Madueke had rolled a low cross all the way across the home sides penalty area. Tzolis stepped onto the ball and drove a low, angled ball toward the bottom corner of the Liverpool goal, which needed a world class save from Allison to prevent Arsenal doubling their lead.

The win for Arsenal takes the Gunners to the top of the Premier League table. Mikel Arteta’s side move three points clear of Manchester City after the Manchester club lost back-to-back games in the league.

Stat Focus

In the first half, the statistics were broadly even between the two sides.

The possession was split 56% in favour of the home side, while Arsenal created a higher XG (expected goals) tally of 0.79. Liverpool only managed 0.40 in reply.

The shot count read eight-to-five in Liverpool’s favour, although the home side created zero on target while Arsenal managed two.

Liverpool managed double the touches inside of the opposition’s penalty area, 30-15, but could not create many dangerous moments.

Both sides missed one big chance, but Arsenal created two with Liverpool only managing one.

A full evaluation of the game’s stats paints a poor showing from the home side. In one of the very few instances in Premier League history, Liverpool did not have a single shot on target for the entire game, while Arsenal recorded three. This Liverpool record had previously stretched for a period of over 400 games at Anfield.

By the full-time whistle, the home side won both possession metrics 56%-44% and the XG battle 1.05-0.96. Liverpool also mustered seventeen shots to Arsenal’s ten but most, if not all, were very low-quality chances.

Three interesting stats to highlight from the game are;

This fixture provided Myles Lewis-Skelly his 50^th Premier League appearance, an impressive feat considering the player is only 20 years old.

Kai Havertz became the highest scoring German player in Premier League history with his smartly taken goal at Anfield. Arsenal’s number 29 has moved passed Ilkay Gundogan onto 46 Premier League goals.

And Arsenal’s current points tally of 24 points after 9 games played is the most points gained after nine games of any side since Arteta’s Arsenal also hit the milestone in the 2022/23 season.

Star Player

The star player award could easily have gone to a number of players. Most notably, either of Arsenal’s centre backs, Martin Odegaard or Christos Tzolis. Tzolis put in a magnificent 84 minutes in his first start since suffering a hamstring injury a month to the day to his return.

Ultimately, the star player goes to Declan Rice. Not only did the midfielder provide an outstanding assist for Kai Havertz’s opener, but his work rate and pure running power played a huge part in Arsenal winning this match.

Rice has now moved onto five assists already£ this season, matching his total tally from the entirety of Arsenal’s title winning season.

Rice is most known for his relentless work rate and defensive contributions to Arsenal’s immense defence, but now he has added end product in the attacking department as well.

Rice is, and continues to be, an exceptional, world class midfielder that is an invaluable member of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.

A Look Ahead

Arsenal now turn their attention back to the Champions League and the Gunners are back in action at 8PM on Wednesday night.

Arsenal have been drawn away against Slavia Prague for match week four of Europe’s most prestigious club competition, the Champions League.

Slavia currently sit in first place in the Czech League. Arsenal’s opponents are unbeaten domestically at present and have recorded eight wins, four draws, with zero losses.

Slavia have not been able to replicate their domestic form in the Champions League. The Czech side looked to be on track to claim a win in the opening match week fixture against Lens. However, the French side found not only a 91^st minute equaliser but also added a 93^rd minute winner.

Slavia then traveled away to Baku to face Champions League newcomers Sabah. The debutants claimed their first ever win when the fixture ended 2-0 to leave Slavia on zero points after two games played.

In match week three, Slavia finally got off the mark thanks to a 90^th minute equaliser from Pavel Kacor in their away fixture at Fenerbahce. The Czech side claimed their first point of the campaign in the process.

This fixture is another opportunity for Mikel Arteta to Heavily rotate his team. That said, some of the players who let the side down in the Fleetwood fixture must put in significantly better performances if they wish to earn the right to play for Arsenal going forward.

After Arsenal’s appeal failed, Max Dowman will continue his domestic suspension, ruling him out for the next two Premier League matches. The Slavia fixture gives the perfect opportunity for Dowman to make amends for his unfortunate red card vs Fleetwood and cement his place in Arsenal’s first team.

With both Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid to come, Arsenal need to produce a professional and convincing performance against Slavia, to gain another three points in order to secure a valuable top eight place in the UCL Table.