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Rob Holding of Arsenal and Naby Keïta of Liverpool during the Premier League match at Anfield on September 28, 2020.
Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA / Getty Images
Liverpool came from behind to maintain a perfect start in defending the Premier League title as goals from Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Diogo Jota saw a strong Arsenal 3-1 at Anfield.
HOW IT HAPPENED | Liverpool v Arsenal
The Gunners had also won their first two league games of the season and beat the champions on the fast break to take the lead through Alexandre Lacazette.
But 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 league. Premier League this season.
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.
Mane was the first to threaten a clean shot from a Trent Alexander-Arnold cross that was too close to Bernd Leno before Alexander-Arnold’s deflected effort returned to the crossbar.
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 an 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 Salah passed Tierney and when his shot was stopped through the goal 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.
Klopp introduced Jota for his league debut with 10 minutes remaining and the Portuguese international should have sealed the win when he shot into the side net with an excellent pass from Salah.
The Egyptian was less generous moments later when he stole the ball from Jota’s feet and failed to beat Leno.
But Jota didn’t have to wait long for his first Liverpool goal when a sweetly struck volley found the bottom corner to show why the Reds spent £ 41 million ($ 52 million) to sign him from the Wolves.
