Super Salah cuts loose
Arsenal handed brutal reality check at Anfield
For David Luiz, this was an introduction to Arsenal and their infamous defensive fragility. For Arsenal, this was an introduction to David Luiz and his infamous defensive fragility. The thing that Arsenal feared when they signed Luiz from Chelsea came to pass in only his second game as Unai Emery’s side were ripped apart by a Liverpool team that seemingly enjoy nothing more than pummelling their visitors from north London.
Make that 15 goals scored by Jurgen Klopp’s side in Arsenal’s last four trips to Anfield. A new season brought new faces and a new threat from Emery’s team, but the same old problems were exposed by the same old faces in red. Chief among them was Mohamed Salah, providing Luiz with a personal torment in a thrilling second-half performance that reminded the league just how hard it will be to stop Liverpool this season.
When Luiz swapped Chelsea blue for Arsenal red, he would not have imagined spending his second match trailing after a motoring Salah, watching as the Liverpool winger disappeared into the distance. Nor would he have envisaged being so careless as to pull Salah’s shirt and award the Egyptian the most foolish of penalties.
This is not what Luiz was signed for. Where was the defensive leadership, the organisation, the calmness? Frankly, it was all at the other end of the field, where Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk were ruffled by Arsenal’s attackers but ultimately sturdy under pressure. For all the talk before the match of the opposing strike forces, it was the defenders who made the difference at Anfield.
Liverpool move back to the top of the table, then, and they do so with another humbling of a “Big Six” opponent. The defensive solidity of last season has not yet fully returned, and they still seek a first clean sheet of the campaign after Lucas Torreira’s consolation strike, but no one can claim this was not another step towards the heights of last season. The sight of Salah scorching past defenders was both fearsome and familiar.
Liverpool have scored 26 goals against Arsenal since Klopp took over in October 2015. There have been more one-sided affairs than this, but at this stage of the campaign it was a showing of remarkable physical strength.
“It was a brilliant game from my side so early in the season,” said a beaming Klopp. “It was outstanding. It was a performance full of power, energy, greed and passion, which I think you need to have against a team like Arsenal. We were completely in charge of the game. We are not Disneyland, we do not need to excite everyone in every second. Our identity is intensity, and we showed that today.”
It was hard to know what was more frustrating for Emery: the defensive collapse or the wasted opportunities in the first half. Arsenal had their chances in those opening exchanges, causing plenty of problems through the speed of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe, but their hope dwindled with every wayward shot. Was it an improvement on last year’s 5-1 thrashing here? Certainly. Was it enough of an improvement to make them think they are ready seriously to challenge sides like Liverpool and Manchester City?
Absolutely not. Arsenal remain frail under pressure, with Luiz’s addition doing little to paper over last season’s cracks. The Brazilian’s needless tug on Salah’s shirt, just minutes into the second half, was ludicrous. His subsequent attempt to nick the ball from Salah, with no one covering behind him, was not much better.
“The key was the penalty,” said Emery, who left Mesut Ozil out of his squad despite the German being available. “We reduced the distance to Liverpool in 90 minutes, compared to last year, but at the moment it is not enough.”
At least Arsenal can take solace in the performance of Pepe, the club-record signing from Lille. No one did more to unsettle Liverpool, with even the mighty Van Dijk appearing on edge in the first half. Emery said his side showed “character” in these moments, when they sat uncharacteristically deep in defence and tried to block the Liverpool attack.
“We showed character when we were losing 3-0, not going down,” said Emery, who confirmed that leftback Nacho Monreal could leave the club for Spain before the closure of the European transfer window.
The best chances for Arsenal came when the game was scoreless. Aubameyang lobbed an effort wide after Adrian, the stand-in goalkeeper, kicked poorly for the second game in succession, before Pepe curled wide and then shot straight at Adrian. Emery would have known already that you have to take your chances at Anfield. Matip provided a painful reminder a few minutes after Pepe’s miss, leaping to a height only he could reach and thumping his header, from Trent AlexanderArnold’s corner, past Bernd Leno.
Half-time came at a good moment for Arsenal, but any tactical plans that Emery may have cooked up were soon rendered irrelevant by Salah and, more accurately, Luiz. The Arsenal defender’s shirt-pull was a blatant as they come, and Salah slammed the resultant penalty into the top corner.
The third came soon enough, with Salah leaving Luiz in his wake, burning past Monreal and sliding a low finish into Leno’s bottom corner. Too powerful, too fast and simply too good to stop. “Mo’s third was absolutely amazing,” said Klopp. Arsenal’s consolation goal, fired low into the corner by Torreira, was just reward for their attacking play. The result, however, was just reward for their defending. Liverpool (4-3-3) Adrian 6; Alexander-Arnold 7, Matip 8, Van Dijk 7, Robertson 6; Henderson 7, Fabinho 7, Wijnaldum 7 (Milner 69); Salah 8, Firmino 7 (Lallana 86), Mane 6 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 77). Subs Kelleher (g), Milner, Gomez, Shaqiri, Origi. Booked Fabinho. Arsenal (4-1-2-1-2) Leno 6; Maitland-Niles 5, Sokratis 6, Luiz 4, Monreal 5; Xhaka 6; Guendouzi 6 (Mkhitaryan 86), Willock 6 (Lacazette 81); Ceballos 5 (Torreira 61); Pepe 7, Aubameyang 6. Subs Martinez (g), Chambers, Kolasinac, Nelson. Booked Luiz. Referee Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).