Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video Fourteen years is a long time to wait for a win at any stadium, but Arsenal ensured all three points returned from Anfield to North London for the first time since 2012 yesterday. The surprise in the team line-up was the return of Christos Tzolis who had missed a month, more or less, with a hamstring injury. If it initially felt a bit harsh on Eberechi Eze, Mikel Arteta’s post-game comments about him barely making the game because of an injury problem of his own made it make more sense. Early on, we were really good. Plenty of the ball, playing it well in their half, and lots of control. Liverpool looked a bit off the pace, and in the opening minutes young midfielder Trey Nyoni was lucky to escape without some sanction for a nasty foul on Martin Odegaard. I think it was much more mistimed that malicious, but studs down the Achilles is never good, and we saw Crystal Palace striker Jean Philippe Mateta see red for something similar on Saturday evening. The early pressure paid dividends when Liverpool were a little sloppy at the back. Odegaard pounced to recover the ball, it was fed to Noni Madueke via Bruno Guimaraes, and when Declan Rice overlapped, his precision ball to the back post found Kai Havertz for a tap-in to make it 1-0. That makes it 5 assists so far this season for the midfielder, all of them from open play as well, and his presence in this team reminds me so much of Patrick Vieira. Not that they’re the same kind of player, but that his importance and stature is just fundamental to us. The desire he showed with that overlap is, essentially, what cracked this game open in our favour. There was another back post chance for Havertz, almost getting on the end of a deflected Guimaraes shot, but after that – as happens so often at Anfield – the momentum changed. This time there was no Granit Xhaka style confrontation to act as a catalyst, the game just shifted and in the final 20 minutes of the first half we rode our luck a bit. Liverpool started to play around our box and deliver dangerous balls. One almost found Alexander Isak but a combination of David Raya and Ezri Konsa was enough to see it trickle wide. Florian Wirtz hit the bar with a free kick, and Liverpool wanted a penalty when Tzolis looked to pull back Cody Gakpo but I don’t think there was enough in that one. The next one, however, oooof. Liverpool put in another dangerous cross, Isak was there to head towards goal from close range, and Jurrien Timber’s shirt pull absolutely prevented him from making contact with the ball. You know my rule of thumb with penalties: how would I feel it were given, or not given, up the other end, and if we didn’t get that I’d be fuming. It’s a penalty all day long, and even if the ref didn’t quite see the foul well enough, the VAR officials really ought to have suggested an on-field review. I found the focus on Isak’s reaction a bit odd. Surely the onus is on the officials to recognise what we’ve all seen without a player having to prompt them in that direction, but we got so, so lucky there. As we did when Alexis Mac Allister ran into the box and, unmarked from 10 yards out, headed the ball over the bar when he absolutely should score. That was a very bad miss from a Liverpool perspective, and a huge change to equalise just before the break. We needed half-time, and despite the fact Liverpool enjoyed plenty of the ball in the early part of the second period, they looked a lot less dangerous. My explanation for this is that we leaned into one of our great strengths, which is our defensive organisation and discipline. I thought Konsa was outstanding, but so too was Riccardo Calafiori at left-back whose one on one defending has improved massively. He dealt with Gakpo, he then had to contend with Rio Ngumoha, and I just loved the concentration as he focused on the ball and more often than not prevented Liverpool from creating danger. Myles Lewis-Skelly came on midfield, Odegaard’s pressing was relentless, and as I remarked on BlueSky afterwards, if this team could attack half as well as it can defend, we’d be the best team in the world by a mile. There were moments when we could have countered better and with more pace, but we still found some threat in the second 45. The best chance fell to Tzolis, set up by Madueke, and his first-time shot was heading for the bottom corner but for a brilliant save from Alisson. Liverpool threw the kitchen sink at it from the bench, but it made little difference. Mac Allister then got a bit naughty, slapping Odegaard on the back of the head, then collapsing to the ground to make it look as if Madueke had leaned his head into him. Replays showed that didn’t happen, and it was pretty pathetic from the Argentina international. I guess, as well as being a risible piece of play-acting, there was an element of desperation to it, because Liverpool huffed and puffed but could not blow our house down because of how defensively outstanding we are as a team. For the first time in Premier League history, Liverpool finished a home game without a shot on target, which tells you something. It probably tells you just how much that Timber shirt pull had an impact because a striker like Isak would at least have tested David Raya from there, but more broadly it tells you that this is a team who look laser-focused on their target this season which is to retain the title – something we’ve never done in the modern era. Afterwards, I thought the manager’s turn of phrase was interesting when he referred to it as ‘a mission’, saying: Just loving the mission and the mission was something that we didn’t accomplish in 14 years. You really need to enjoy that. If you don’t, there will be a moment that you will switch off and they will punish you. I think the way we competed and played and the chances that we generated as well, it was really impressive so I’m really happy. He’s obviously referencing winning away at Liverpool for the first time in such a long time, but I think it applies to the season as well. And, as I referenced in yesterday’s blog, there was a response to the midweek defeat to Fleetwood Town. If that was a result that as fans we could find relatively easy to compartmentalise, I don’t think the same is true for this manager because we know he wants to win every game, and it how much it stings when we don’t – especially against lower league opposition. He expected his side to deliver, saying: It was a feeling, how the hell can that happen? How can you get out of the cup when you shoot 27 times? We had the chances that we had against a team that had put one shot on target and then you look so silly. Then you have to go to Anfield and say, how can I lift those players up? I had a feeling and I said, now is the moment. We’re going to have to dig deep, have an element of luck at times and for sure a lot of quality in the key moments and we’ve done it. Which I think is a pretty fair assessment. We did a lot of stuff very well, we had moments of luck – which you so often need in a game like this to take all three points – but I don’t think anyone should be under any illusions that this was anything other than the champions demonstrating our title credentials again. In every season, regardless of how good you are, you need the rub of the green from time to time, like a Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty miss at Old Trafford, or Mateus Fernandes missing a huge chance for West Ham. It doesn’t change the inherent quality you possess or what you’re capable of doing, and in the cold light of day it should make you more driven to ensure you widen the margins – and by that I mean delivering a bit more in the opposition’s final third. However, no complaints this morning. We had a job to do, and a difficult one at that, and we did exactly that to put us back on top of the table. It’s a nice place to be, but it’s still so early in the season I think we should dismiss any chat about what it means at this point. We can be impressed, but still cognisant of the fact there’s still a long, long way to go. Right, I’ll leave it there for now, but we will have an Arsecast Extra for you a bit later on today. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com, so fire away using the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. The pod should be out around around noon or so. Until then, have a good one. The post Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal: Resolute Gunners dig in for a big Anfield win appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.