Just how Mikel Arteta thought his team would beat Liverpool at Anfield this afternoon is anyone’s guess.
Until the 83rd minute, Arsenal seemed content not to lose. But when Dominik Szoboszlai, playing an unfamiliar position as a Number 2, hit a fierce postage stamp free kick that whizzed past a befuddled David Raya from almost 30m out, they then sprang into action.
It was already too late, but it proved true, probably the silliest of clichés – if you don’t score, you don’t win.
The game had been a drab bore until the Hungary captain, who is playing in the Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Liverpool king of free kicks, role, hit a TAA special.
If Arteta had decided that the best way to win the title this season was to be defensive after coming second three terms in a row, then he was emphatically disabused of that notion tonight.
Liverpool have been poor so far this season defensively, despite remaining the only team with a 100% record.
Arsenal didn’t know how to attack a Liverpool side that has shipped in at least two goals a game.
Instead of this being a deserved win, it was a deserved defeat.
Earlier in the day, Manchester City went down 2-1 to Brighton at American Express Stadium – their second defeat in as many games. The first time that a Pep Guardiola side has lost two so early in the season.
It wasn’t vintage City, but they also didn’t deserve to lose.
Until the lucky penalty in the 65th minute, City keeper James Trafford had touched the ball more with his feet than his hands.
His only save of the first half came in the 19th minute, when Kaoru Mitoma was sent through, springing the high City offside line, but the man who arguably cost his side the last time out against Tottenham Hotspur made a smart save to his right. His second save came three minutes before that controversial penalty.
This was Rodri’s first start in 11 months and Erling Haaland’s 100th league game in City colours.
While the former was his old dominant self, the latter was not his best.
In the ninth minute, Haaland was put through by Omar Marmoush; the Norwegian marksman’s first two touches were so poor that what happened next was expected. The giant Number 9 hit a tame shot in goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen’s direction. The 23-year-old Dutchman gratefully scooped it up.
In the 23rd minute, the lanky striker then missed his target from a header inside the box. In his defence, the ball had been played behind him after wonderful interplay between Tijjani Reijnders and Oscar Bobb. But there was no excuse for not scoring a minute later, when his left back, Algerian Rayan Ait-Nouri, found his head with a lofted cross from the left. Of course, Verbruggen made a point-blank save, but it was one he should never have been allowed to make. Before another minute had passed, the Norwegian headed wide from a corner.
He somewhat redeemed himself when he poked in after Marmoush lifted the ball over defenders’ feet as he sought to bulldoze his way through to goal from inside the box. But the ball fell beautifully in Haaland’s path for him to score his 88th league goal in 100 outings for City.
They say all finishes are good, but this would have been more befitting of the preceding interplay had it been a sweet strike into the corner. That approach was incredible.
Bobb picked the ball along the touchline, some 30m away. He dribbled his way forward, then played in Reijnders, who found Marmoush. The Egyptian dribbled his way into the box, then got a lucky break when the ball rebounded back to him, sandwiched between three defenders. He had the presence of mind to lift the ball over the cluster of feet, but he couldn’t find his way past the octopus of legs. The Norwegian, though, did.
He powered up and through to get to the ball before Verbruggen and then poked it into the net.
Before Matheus Nunes was adjusted to have handled in the box when he lifted his elbow to stop a cross from crashing into his face in the 65th minute, Bobb, twice, and Marmoush had failed to take their chances. Former Citizen and Liverpool 2020 championship-winning player James Milner sent Trafford the wrong way from the resulting spot kick to make it 1-all.
From that moment, Trafford made three good saves, including a spectacular stop from Jan Paul van Hecke inside the box.
A minute later in the 89th, John Stones went in with both feet off the ground to clear near the halfway towards his left touchline. But instead of playing the ball out of touch to give his side the chance to regroup, he sought to pass it forward to a teammate. When Yankuba Minteh intercepted on his side of the half, City were in trouble with Nunes, Stones and Abdukodir Khusanov all wide.
A few passes inside, Brajan Gruda sold Ait-Nouri a dummy, and with the Algerian sprawled on the ground inside the box, the German found the back of the net with ease. Rodri’s steady performance notwithstanding, for a second time in a row now Brighton have come from a goal down to beat City 2-1. The Spaniard was on the ball 76 times from passes and an additional 15 from interceptions. If football were a fair game, his would have been a winning contribution.
Final results:
Liverpool 1 – Arsenal 0
Man City 1 – Brighton 2
West Ham United 3 – Nottingham Forest 0
