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Jurgen Klopp said on Monday he was impressed by the standards Liverpool have set at the start of their Premier League title defense after coming back to beat Arsenal 3-1 at Anfield.
Goals from Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Diogo Jota finished off the Gunners, who had won their first two league games of the season.
While Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and now Arsenal have lost in the first three weeks of the new campaign, Liverpool have taken maximum points to establish an early score that they are still the team to beat in the Premier League this season. .
“It’s really early in the season and with this performance it’s absolutely ‘wow,'” said coach Klopp.
“From the first second, (he was) dominant against a fit team. We had to be very careful with counterattacks.
“The football we played was absolutely exceptional. About this game tonight, there is nothing bad to say.”
However, the outcome of the match could have been very different if Mane had not escaped with just a yellow card for an elbow to Kieran Tierney after just three minutes.
Arsenal followed the game plan that had brought them two wins over Liverpool in recent months as they fell deeply and then sought to play around the Reds press when in possession.
However, unlike when they met at the end of the Premier League last season when Jurgen Klopp’s men had already won the league or the Community Shield in August, Liverpool were much sharper in pulling the Gunners out of their position.
The only time Arsenal managed to get through to the Liverpool press before half-time, it opened the scoring completely against the march.
Robertson was at fault when he placed Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ cross in the path of Lacazette, who also failed to make a proper connection, but the ball bounced off the ground and passed over defenseless Alisson Becker.
Liverpool immediately responded to the level in three minutes when Mohamed Salah passed Tierney and when his shot was stopped crossed by Leno, Mane became an empty net.
Robertson corrected his earlier mistake when Liverpool’s flying wings were combined and Alexander-Arnold’s cross was this time converted by the Scotland captain.
However, where Arsenal’s teams from recent years could have collapsed, as they did losing 4-0 and 5-1 at Anfield in 2018 and 2019, Mikel Arteta has instilled a new belief in FA Cup winners.
The visitors were more expansive after the break and created a great opportunity to equalize when Dani Ceballos put Lacazette on goal, but Alisson stood up well to block the French forward’s shot.
“When you come to Anfield you’re not going to get 10 chances. When you’re one on one with the goalkeeper, you have to score,” Arteta said as Liverpool extended their unbeaten streak at home in the Premier League to 61 games. .
“It’s a really difficult place for anyone in the world, they set incredible standards.
“They have different weapons. They have been together for five years, we have been together for a few months. The standards are these and this is what we have to achieve.”
Klopp introduced Jota for his league debut with 10 minutes remaining and the Portuguese international quickly demonstrated why Liverpool spent £ 41 million to sign him from Wolves.
Jota pounced on David Luiz’s header to control and fire a sweetly hit volley that found the bottom corner.
