NOW LET’S GET REAL!
Reds’ perfect warm-up for Euro mission
DIOGO JOTA and Mo Salah gave Liverpool’s hopes of a Champions League finish a major shot in the arm.
Trent Alexander-Arnold restated his case for his own European adventure this summer by delivering a timely reminder of his capabilities to England boss Gareth Southgate.
The Liverpool right-back was omitted from the Three Lions squad for the World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland after, according to Southgate, underperforming this season.
But he put in an excellent performance, and Liverpool’s win, a perfect build-up for Tuesday’s Champions League trip to Real Madrid, owed as much to him as to anyone.
Several times he put in the sort of dangerous crosses from the right that he is known for, and it was the one that picked out Jota, within four minutes of his arrival as a substitute, that finally gave Liverpool the breakthrough.
Arsenal were outplayed throughout, unable to cope with Liverpool’s pressing, and soon after the first came the second, when Salah shrugged off Gabriel and raced clear before nutmegging Bernd Leno in the home goal.
Liverpool were dominant throughout and ought to have been far ahead by halftime but James Milner and Fabinho both dragged efforts wide as they settled into their rhythm.
Sadio Mane’s header, after good work in the build-up from Salah and AlexanderArnold, lacked power and was easy for Leno.
The next chance fell to Roberto Firmino, back in the mix after a knee injury ruled him out of the three previous games, but his effort from 20 yards was always curling away from goal.
The best chance of the lot fell to Milner just after the half-hour mark following more good work down the right from Alexander-Arnold.
But despite being in plenty of space just inside the area he curled his effort wide when he should have done better. Arsenal spent much of the first half chasing shadows and clearly missed Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, who were out with hamstring and hip injuries respectively.
They were without David Luiz too, thanks to a knee problem, although Rob Holding did well alongside Gabriel in the heart of defence. Granit Xhaka’s absence through injury saw Dani Ceballos start.
Those on show for the Gunners struggled with Liverpool’s front-foot play and, the odd pass from Martin Odegaard aside, the Reds’ defence rarely looked like being tested.
Arsenal’s best opportunity, if you could call it that, fell to Nicolas Pepe but he was always stretching backwards to get his head on the ball and his effort was easy for Alisson to gather. As if they weren’t struggling enough, the hosts suffered a setback when Kiernan Tierney got an injury in first-half stoppage-time that forced him off.
Arsenal finally forced a save from Alisson after an hour, although Cedric Soares’s shot wasn’t packed with power.
It was at that time that Klopp decided to shuffle his pack, with Jota sent on for Andy Robertson. Soon he had headed Liverpool in front.
Salah pushed a little pass out wide to Alexander-Arnold and his cross was delivered with pinpoint accuracy for the Portuguese to nod home.
Salah shrugged off Gabriel and poked the ball through Leno, and Jota struck his second for 3-0 – Sadio Mane got the assist but AlexanderArnold was a key creator of the chance once again.