By Frank Dalleres
Arsenal beat Liverpool for the first time in nine attempts on Sunday to return to the top of the Premier League and leave the visitors’ hopes of a title challenge in tatters.
Bukayo Saka scored twice, including a penalty winner, and Gabriel Martinelli struck the other goal as Arsenal went one point ahead of Manchester City.
Liverpool twice fought back through Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino but had no answer to Saka’s 76th-minute spot-kick and now lie 14 points off the top, albeit with a game in hand.
Are Arsenal Premier League title contenders?
This was billed as a test of whether Arsenal could sustain their flying start to the season or would revert to type against a team whom they had not scored past in six games.
It took 57 seconds to answer that question as Martinelli finished a sweeping counter-attack by stroking the ball past Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.
Though they sat off too much at times when in front, each time they were pegged back they found the resolve and penetration to score again.
So ominous do champions City look that talk of a title race almost seems fanciful, but Arsenal are certainly the best of the rest if nothing else.
Manager Mikel Arteta wasn’t getting carried away. Asked if this was his best win in charge, he grinned: “I don’t know, but I’m really, really happy today.”
Marvellous Martinelli
Saka’s two-goal haul and nerves of steel to take the decisive penalty after his Euro 2020 final shootout miss may get more attention but Martinelli was man of the match.
The Brazilian wide forward was Arsenal’s most dangerous player and tormented Trent Alexander-Arnold and his replacement Joe Gomez.
Martinelli was clinical in scoring the first goal and laid on the second for Saka just before half-time after a typically fleet-footed run.
“He made a difference in the game. That is the next level for him,” said Arteta.
Liverpool’s fab four
Jurgen Klopp again picked a front four, his latest attempt to recalibrate his attack following the departure of Sadio Mane and signing of Nunez.
It proved effective in spells, with the lively Diaz crossing for Nunez to score on the stretch and Firmino finishing a neat passing move through the middle in deadly fashion.
Salah, however, was virtually anonymous again, Liverpool’s main source of goals in the Jurgen Klopp era shackled by Takehiro Tomiyasu and eventually hooked on 69 minutes.
Has the Egyptian suffered from Mane’s exit and the tactical switch or is the sheer volume of football he and Liverpool have played catching up with him?
Either way, Klopp is sticking with his formation but accepts his side are out of the title race.
“I think the goals we conceded had nothing to do with the system. We are in a rough moment and we want to get through this together,” he said.
“Not in the title race. We have problems at the moment but we caused the leaders massive problems today. That’s the truth as well. So we have to continue.”
Look away now, Gareth
It is probably as well that Gareth Southgate has a Euro 2024 qualifying draw to distract him on Sunday from multiple England players suffering injury scares ahead of next month’s World Cup.
Trent Alexander-Arnold had to be substituted at half-time against Arsenal after the right-back suffered an ankle injury when Martinelli’s follow-through caught him.
Aaron Ramsdale, perhaps the most likely goalkeeper to be Jordan Pickford’s understudy in Qatar, also needed treatment after appearing to strain his right thigh but was well enough to finish the match.
With two games a week for most of his players over the next month, Southgate is likely to face plenty more heart-in-mouth moments until England’s World Cup opener on 21 November.
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