Four-midable Liverpool get back on song
SIMON MULLOCK WHEN Jurgen Klopp ditched his specs after having surgery on his eyes in the summer, it wasn’t so he could have a touchline tear-up with Mikel Arteta.
But when Liverpool’s players spotted their manager being dragged away from the Arsenal boss after a frank exchange of views following Sadio Mane’s 33rd-minute challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu, it provided the kind of provocation they needed.
Klopp didn’t take a backward step – and neither did Arteta, to be fair.
But on the pitch, Arsenal were given a painful reminder that you go toe-totoe with Liverpool at your peril.
Within seven minutes, Mane had added insult to injury by heading the home side ahead.
And when Diogo Jota added a second Liverpool goal seven minutes after the break, Arteta retired to his seat in the dugout.
When Mo Salah got his customary goal against Arsenal 17 minutes from the end it was only what the Egyptian deserved for another brilliant performance.
Substitute Takumi Minamino added a fourth for good measure four minutes later.
Chelsea’s win at Leicester earlier in the day required a Liverpool response. And it was another painful Anfield night for the Gunners.
Since Klopp (right) arrived at Anfield in the autumn of 2015, his team have now won eight times against Arsenal in the Premier League and lost one of 12 meetings.
The Gunners arrived with the momentum of an eight-game unbeaten league run and a place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals. The visitors rarely emerged from their own half for the first 16 minutes as the Reds passed and probed.
But then Tomiyasu surged forward to cross from the right and it needed Alex Oxlade-chamberlain’s vital intervention to stop Bukayo Saka heading home.
Liverpool responded when Thiago’s volley was spilled by Aaron Ramsdale and the Gunners keeper had to redeem himself by diverting Mane’s follow-up behind as the striker slid in.
Mane and Tomiyasu were having a torrid tussle – and when the Liverpool forward flattened the defender for a second time it ended with Klopp and Arteta squaring up to each other.
Fourth official Andrew Madley came between the two men before coaching staff from both sides came in to drag them away.
Both managers were still ranting after being booked. But on the pitch,
it was the home side now throwing knockout punches.
Kostas Tsimikas broke in behind to put one on a plate for Salah, but Ramsdale saved brilliantly before reacting first to scoop away the rebound.
Ramsdale then excelled again to flick over Trent Alexander-arnold’s thumping drive.
The Arsenal keeper would have been disappointed when Mane finally ended his resistance.
Alexander-arnold’s free-kick from the right dipped over Gabriel’s head and Mane’s textbook downward header bounced over Ramsdale’s outstretched hand.
After the break, Liverpool kept swinging.
Albert Sambi Lokonga was almost made to pay for giving the ball away cheaply for the third time in the space of a few minutes when Oxlade-chamberlain guided his shot wide.
But when Nuno Tavares then inexplicably presented Jota with possession just inside the Arsenal box there was no reprieve.
The Portuguese danced around Ben White’s tackle, waited for Ramsdale to commit himself and then walked home his sixth goal of the season.
Salah scored his 16th goal of the season with a close-range volley from Mane’s cross.
And Alexander-arnold was the provider again when substitute Minamino fired home.