Arsenal 0-3 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp’s post-match verdict

The Reds came within two points of Chelsea, ranked fourth in the Premier League table, thanks to a double from Diogo Jota and a goal from Mohamed Salah at the Emirates Stadium.

Jota came off the bench just at the hour mark and scored in the 64th and 82nd minutes, with Salah’s clinical finish sandwiched in the middle.

Read on for a full transcript of the boss’s post-match press conference …

On whether he was surprised by Arsenal’s tactics …

No, I wasn’t surprised for a second. I never had this feeling during the game. I think the answer to this question is probably [because of] a good performance of my team. I think the first five, six, seven minutes, I’m not 100% sure, it was a pretty open game, not much happened. But after that we were really in charge of the game, we were dominant, we did good football against the Arsenal lineup with all this counter attack threat. The most important thing in defense was how our counterattack was, and that was absolutely exceptional tonight and it was very important. So we remove that quality with the counter-press, obviously we don’t use our chances. [in the] first half, but we knew we had to keep going, we have to do some little things even better in the second half [which] We tried to show it to the boys at halftime. But the result is the result of performance, and tonight’s performance was obviously good enough that I would rather win the match in the second half than lose it. That is why it was necessary for us to do the same again and the boys did it. We made changes, which obviously helped too.

On Jota ‘making a difference’ when he entered …

When finished, yes, you can say that. But I’m not sure if there could be another player in the position as well, but I don’t want to take anything away from Diogo because he’s in a really good moment. We had to make decisions. Look, Diogo played too much for Portugal for my liking, he doesn’t criticize Portugal, he just was injured for a long time, we played with him immediately because Bobby was injured and he already played too much for us. Then he went to Portugal and the last two games were very intense, so he felt it a bit. Gini played all three games for the Netherlands, it seems like Robbo plays for Scotland all the time, every second. So we had to make these kinds of decisions: some didn’t start, some didn’t finish the game. But in general, tonight we had a choice, that’s very important. All the guys at the time, hopefully it stays that way, they had enough time after the injury they had, maybe they are in a good time and in good shape too. We have opportunities. Tonight he could have lined up five, six other players who are in good shape. Curtis Jones played for the under-21s outstanding, Shaq played super, Naby trained outstanding for us, Oxlade is in a very good moment. So that’s the situation we have now and now we have to use it for the difficult period ahead. That is all.

On Trent Alexander-Arnold’s attendance for Jota’s first game …

Outstanding. Look, when you play a game like the one Trent played tonight, when you’re completely in the game, not thinking much, just concentrating on the important things in the game, then you can do this kind of thing. In a worse game, even Trent doesn’t cross like that. But tonight he had an exceptionally good game. Yes, the center was very good, but the header, I still had to finish it, it is not as easy as it seems. So Diogo did that and that is very important.

On the ‘statement’, performance and Liverpool’s victory in the race for a place in the top four …

For us, it was a very important statement for us because we have to show that we are fighting for it. We can’t just talk about it, we have to show it on the field and we did, especially with the way we defended tonight. If we defend how [we did] tonight then we are difficult to break and if we are difficult to break, we have a good base to play good football, and that’s what we did tonight, that’s why it was so important In our situation it is clear, with all the things that happened to us in the past this season, [they] It put us in a position where we don’t have it in our hands. We have to win our games and someone else has to lose because we don’t play most of them anymore, but we have to put pressure on them and that’s what we did tonight with the result. We are not yet at the end of the season nor are we finished; Everton can happen to us, West Ham can happen to us and all these kinds of things, so we have to fight and that is the statement for us and for no one else.

On whether Alexander-Arnold has benefited from the break …

Yes, 100 percent. But he didn’t get much rest because we trained quite intensely with the guys, but yeah, sure, the things we did in training helped him. When you play three games in 10 days there is not much time to train because you recover and all that kind of thing. We had time to train, work on things and that helps. I can understand why it’s a story and I said the things that I think I had to say because it’s my opinion, but I don’t want it to be misunderstood. I’m not criticizing Gareth Southgate or whatever and I don’t want people to think that I have an argument with Gareth. I have not, at all; I respect his role and his decision, but I know the player better than anyone, than any other coach, I can say that he is a world-class player. Not just offensively. Do you always act first? No, [but] I don’t know of any player who is doing that. It’s your potential, that’s all.

In a third consecutive clean sheet and the advantage of Fabinho returning to number 6 …

Everything is fine, everything helps, but we have a lot of games and we’ll see if they can play all the games. If not, we will have to make changes. It’s three clean sheets in a row, great. The whole team defended at a different level than before, I must say, it’s not just the two in the center. It was a really good defensive performance and that was necessary, that is what you need, that is what we did and hopefully everyone stays in shape for the best part of the season in the final part of the season.