Arsenal ended 14 years of frustration at Anfield on Sunday, beating Liverpool 1-0 to move three points clear at the top of the Premier League, with Kai Havertz’s 16th-minute goal settling a match the champions had to survive as much as win.
Havertz turned in Declan Rice’s precise low cross at the far post after Liverpool were caught trying to play out from their own defence, and that single goal proved enough for Arsenal’s first league victory at Anfield since September 2012, when Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla scored in a 2-1 win and current manager Mikel Arteta was playing in midfield.
Arsenal’s win matters because it turns a difficult week into a statement about the title race. Four days earlier the champions had crashed out of the League Cup to fourth-tier Fleetwood Town, and a defeat at Anfield would have reopened every question about their nerve. Instead they leave Merseyside on 24 points from nine matches, with eight wins and one defeat, while Liverpool sit fifth, nine points behind the leaders.
“It feels better as a manager, because it’s been such a long time without having this feeling here that we really needed it,” Arteta said after the match. “We are extremely proud of what the team, the players, everybody has done, and especially in the conditions that we arrived to this game.”
Arteta had been stinging in his criticism of the side that lost to Fleetwood on Tuesday in one of the biggest shocks in League Cup history, and Havertz had been one of the main culprits for wasted chances in that tie. The German made amends with a simple finish from Rice’s cross, a goal that was also his 46th in the Premier League, taking him past Ilkay Gundogan as the division’s highest-scoring German player.
A response to Fleetwood
Arteta said the Fleetwood defeat had given his players an extra edge rather than shaking them. “We just said after the last few days, after the defeat against Fleetwood, that things happen for a reason and that’s going to give us another spring and hunger and belief to go and do it,” he said. “What the team have done here today is incredible.”
Liverpool, managed by Andoni Iraola, had begun to click in recent weeks and arrived seeking a third successive league win, which would have moved them to within three points of Arsenal. Iraola and Arteta played together as boys for Basque side Antiguoko, and the Liverpool manager gave his old friend one of the most uncomfortable afternoons Arsenal have experienced in recent seasons.
Liverpool’s best spell came straight after conceding, with Florian Wirtz curling a free kick against the crossbar and Alexis Mac Allister heading a good chance over the bar before half-time. Alisson Becker also produced a stunning save in the second half to turn behind a shot from Christos Tzolis that was arrowing into the bottom corner.
Yet for all their pressure, Liverpool never made Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya work. The hosts had around 16 or 17 attempts but none on target, according to match counts, the first time Liverpool have failed to register a shot on target in a home league match since Opta records began in 2003.
The penalty Liverpool wanted
Liverpool’s biggest complaint came in the 21st minute, when replays showed Jurrien Timber holding Alexander Isak’s shirt as the striker tried to reach a cross from Bradley Barcola. Referee Andy Madley gave nothing, and the video assistant referee did not send him to the monitor.
“The Alex one is a clear penalty,” Iraola said afterwards. “We can all see that he holds the shirt, but because he doesn’t go to the floor, you are not going to call the penalty? I don’t understand it.” Isak, one of Liverpool’s three forwards signed for more than 100 million pounds each, had stayed on his feet rather than going down under the pull.
Arteta said he had not seen the incident. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen it,” he said. “I will have to comment on a lot of actions that happened in the game, otherwise.”
After half-time, Liverpool rarely looked like breaking through a relentless Arsenal rearguard, and frustration boiled over when Mac Allister was involved in an altercation with Noni Madueke. Arsenal, by contrast, created six or seven big chances of their own, according to Arteta, even if they could not add a second goal. “They are in a really good moment, had won every game and fully deserved it,” Arteta said of Liverpool. “To come here and win in the manner that we’ve done, I think the players deserve so much credit.”
Iraola struck a different note, insisting there were plenty of positives despite the defeat. “I loved the reaction from my players after going 1-0 down,” he said. “I loved a lot of moments of the game. We have to keep going. It is very early in the season. Arsenal are in the best of the situations but it is just the start of November today.”
Context for the result goes back to Arsenal’s long Anfield record. Before Sunday, the Gunners had not won a league match at Liverpool’s ground since 2012, a run spanning 14 years and several title challenges that faded on Merseyside. Arteta was part of that 2012 winning side as a player; Sunday was his first Premier League win at Anfield as Arsenal manager.
What is confirmed is the result, the scorer, the table position and the shot-on-target record: Arsenal won 1-0 through Havertz’s 16th-minute goal, moved three points clear of Manchester City at the top, and kept a clean sheet while Liverpool failed to test Raya once. What is not settled is the penalty debate, which will run on in analysis of the match, and the title race itself, with Manchester City expected to face a severe points penalty unless they overturn a guilty verdict on more than 100 charges of breaking Premier League rules, a case that could still reshape the table. Matchday 10 closes on Monday night with Newcastle United against Everton, and Arsenal’s next task is to hold the lead they have finally built at a ground that has denied them for so long.
