DIAZED AND CONFUSED!
Luis sends Klopp and Co marching on to next round as misfiring Gunners fluff their lines yet again
JURGEN KLOPP did not celebrate like a manager uninterested in the FA Cup.
In fact, Klopp wheeled away in delight and fist-pumped towards the travelling Liverpool fans after a thirdround tie which felt like a snapshot of the whole season.
Arsenal started well, missed loads of chances, and allowed Liverpool to punish their wastefulness.
It was hardly a classic for a bumper BBC live audience but at least we got a winner and Arsenal have only themselves to blame that it was not them.
Liverpool are proving that, when you are winning, a congested fixture list does not seem congested at all.
Klopp’s men are top of the Premier League, in a Carabao Cup semi-final, and are now into the fourth round of the FA Cup. And they are favourites to win the Europa League.
If they were tired by the final whistle, their weary legs didn’t stop them celebrating at the away end, which was still full while the rest of the stadium had emptied out.
Arsenal’s season is in danger of imploding. It is now four games in all competitions without a win, they have lost top spot in the Premier League and are out of the FA Cup.
You could even sense groans at the final whistle from the remaining home fans, who were probably all saying the same thing: sign a striker.
Once again they created more than enough chances to win.
Once again they wasted them all.
Liverpool, who must have beem hugely relieved to go into the half-time break on level terms, took the lead through Jakub Kiwior’s own goal from Trent Alexander-arnold’s wicked free-kick, before Colombia international Luis Diaz gave Arsenal a lesson in finishing with an injury-time clincher.
Arsenal were wearing an all-white kit to support their anti-knife campaign, but otherwise the line-up looked familiar, apart from Kai Havertz playing as a false nine. But while Havertz is very good technically, he could never be described as a clinical finisher.
The lack of goals has become a major concern for Emirates manager Mikel Arteta (right). Gabriel Jesus, sidelined with injury, has scored just three in the Premier League while Bukayo Saka is top scorer with six.
Havertz dawdled every time he had an opening and headed a great chance wide while Martin Odegaard crashed a shot against the bar with the goal at his mercy.
When Havertz flashed a cross into the Liverpool box and no one got on the end of it, you just knew that Arsenal were not going to score.
Alexander-arnold had hit the bar in the first half in Liverpool’s only move of real menace and then grew more influential as he pushed
forward. Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale made a super save from Diaz but the writing is always on the wall for any team that misses as many chances as Arsenal did.
Kiwior, vulnerable filling in at left-back, headed into his own net when Alexander-arnold whipped in a free-kick from the left flank in the 80th minute. As Arsenal went in search of an equaliser most knew would not come, Liverpool grabbed a second on the break. Diogo Jota played in Diaz, who smashed into the top corner to settle the thirdround tie.
Kop boss Klopp (left) and his Liverpool team, who were missing Mo Salah (international duty), Virgil van Dijk (illness), and Dominik Szoboszlai and Andy Robertson (injured), now have all the momentum and their season is flying. But for Arsenal the season is in danger of unravelling at an alarming rate.