REDS ROUT’S A SOB STORY
Boss tears up at 3-goal Rob & Co Liverpool ..................5 Arsenal .....................1
Jurgen Klopp saw his rampant Reds destroy Arsenal and revealed they nearly left him in tears.
The Gunners grabbed the lead through Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the 10th minute but that was as good as it got for them.
Roberto Firmino scored twice in the five minutes after MaitlandNiles’ strike.
The other two members of Klopp’s Fab Three also got in on the act, with Sadio Mane and Mo Salah netting before half-time.
Firmino completed his hat-trick after the break from the spot.
Klopp said: “Mo Salah gave the penalty to Bobby and I almost cried because we all know how much Mo wants to score goals. It was really nice.
“We were really good and did exactly what we wanted to do.
“The response to Arsenal’s goal was world class. We stayed clam and really forced the mistakes.
“Bobby’s second when Sadio won the bal l. Wow. It was perfect defending. I don’t have much to moan about in 2018.”
The Gunners went in front as Alex Iwobi worked a one-two with Aaron Ramsey before crossing to the far post. There was 21- year- old
Maitland-Niles to slide in and gobble up the chance but the curtain then went up on the Firmino show.
Liverpool got lucky when Granit Xhaka slid in to halt Salah and Stephane Lichtsteiner’s attempted clearance hit Shkodran Mustafi to present Firmino with a sitter.
Two minutes later the Brazilian found himself through after Mane had dispossessed Lucas Torreira.
Firmino left Bernd Leno stranded with a glorious finish.
Liverpool cut the visitors open to score again in the 32nd minute.
Andy Robertson’s sweeping switch of play found Salah lurking in the inside- left position. The Egyptian caressed a perfect pass into the path of Mane to score.
On the stroke of half-time Salah wriggled past Sokratis and went down. Ref Michael Oliver pointed to the spot and Salah rammed his 16th goal of the season.
Salah had a chance to add to his tally in the 65th minute after Sead Kolasinac barged Dejan Lovren.
Instead he let Firmino take home the match ball.
Arsenal boss Unai Emery said: “We know we need to get better. Liverpool is an example for us.”