ANFIELD HOODOO ENDS · Premier League
HAVERTZ PUTS GUNNERS TOP
Rice sets it up, Arsenal hold out, and a 14-year wait at Anfield is over
LIVERPOOL 0 ARSENAL 1 (Kai Havertz 16). HT 0-1.
Arsenal have waited since 2012 for a Premier League win at Anfield. Kai Havertz ended the wait in the 16th minute, and the Gunners did the rest with their backs to the wall.
Liverpool were caught trying to play out from a goal-kick. Arsenal won the ball back, Declan Rice overlapped down the right and drilled a low ball across the face of goal, and Havertz was waiting, unmarked, at the far post to tap in.
Wave after wave
What followed was attack against defence. David Raya just beat Alexander Isak to a Virgil van Dijk flick-on, Liverpool had two penalty shouts waved away, Jurrien Timber's tug on Isak's shirt and a Cody Gakpo tumble among them, and Florian Wirtz crashed a free-kick against the crossbar before the break. Alexis Mac Allister headed Milos Kerkez's cross over.
For all of it, Andoni Iraola's side had 17 attempts and not one on target. Isak, six league goals to his name this season, barely got a sniff.
'VAR, do your job'
Liverpool's biggest grievance came on 21 minutes, when Timber pulled Isak's shirt as he went to head Bradley Barcola's cross. VAR checked it and cleared it. On Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher said: "One of the best goalscorers in the league is pulled back seven yards out and it stops him heading the ball - why does he need to make a meal of it? VAR do your job." Ian Wright, the former Arsenal striker, admitted: "As an Arsenal man, I'm glad we got away with it."
Alisson's double life
Arsenal tightened up after the interval and grew stronger once Myles Lewis-Skelly came on. Only a brilliant one-handed save from Alisson kept out Christos Tzolis's first-time strike, and substitute Victor Munoz's late header was too weak to trouble Raya.
It was the perfect answer from Mikel Arteta's men to their midweek Carabao Cup humbling by League Two Fleetwood. With Manchester City beaten again on Saturday, Arsenal now sit three points clear at the summit.
Liverpool, second defeat under Iraola, stay fifth, nine points adrift of the leaders.
What they said
14 years without winning here is a long time. Things happen for a reason and that gave us a belief and a hunger to come here.
Mikel Arteta, Arsenal manager
Arteta rejected the idea that his side had simply sat in: "Very fluid at times. We generated six or seven big chances but we couldn't break out." He also paid tribute to the hosts: "They are in a really good moment, had won every game and fully deserved it."
Gary Neville, on Sky Sports, called it "a defensive masterclass from Arsenal", adding: "Andoni Iraola will be upset, he will feel like his team have given everything."
Andoni Iraola had not spoken publicly when this edition went to press.