Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal: Five talking points
Liverpool maintained their 100 per cent winning start to the Premier League season with a 3-1 victory over Arsenal on Saturday.
Joel Matip’s 41st-minute header handed the Reds a deserved lead at Anfield, and Mohamed Salah scored twice in the early stages of the second half to press home that advantage.
Lucas Torreira netted a late consolation for Arsenal, but Jürgen Klopp’s side saw the remainder out to make it three wins from three top-flight outings in 2019-20.
Here are five talking points on the action from Anfield…
Twelve in a row
Klopp’s team have made setting records feel routine in recent times, and they broke new ground once again on Saturday.
Never before in the Premier League era had Liverpool won 12 consecutive top-flight matches, and the Reds’ latest success matches the club’s all-time high watermark of a dozen successive league wins set in 1990.
Sensational Salah
Touch, technique, pace and composure.
Salah has all four of those attributes in abundance, of course, and the Egyptian showcased that fact once again to put Liverpool three goals to the good just before the hour mark.
After nicking Fabinho’s fine, vertical pass ahead of David Luiz around 40 yards out, Salah angled his run directly towards Bernd Leno’s goal.
And, once he was in the area, there was only one outcome: the No.11 opening out his body to coolly dispatch a low, curled finish into the bottom corner.
That moment of individual brilliance, coupled with the penalty he won and converted minutes earlier, means Salah has now been directly involved in eight goals in six Premier League appearances against Arsenal (six goals and two assists), scoring in all four of his home games versus the Gunners.
Joel in the goals again
One day after the third anniversary of his Liverpool debut, Matip broke the deadlock late in a first half the Reds had dominated without reward.
The centre-back rose highest to plant Trent Alexander-Arnold’s outswinging corner into the top corner of the Kop-end net with a perfectly directed header.
As well as scoring his second goal of the season, Matip was an authoritative presence alongside Virgil van Dijk at the heart of the Reds’ defence, and quickness of mind and foot enabled him to get back and extinguish the danger when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke into the penalty area early in the second half.
The No.32 led the way for the Reds in terms of interceptions, making three throughout the 90 minutes, while only Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum and Alexander-Arnold posted more than his five ball regains.
Ton up for the skipper
Jordan Henderson returned to the Reds’ starting line-up on Saturday, and in doing so captained the club for the 100th time in the Premier League.
The No.14’s front-foot approach to the art of playing in central midfield was evident from the first whistle, and a stunning first-time pass arrowed into the path of Andy Robertson in the 10th minute drew appreciative gasps and applause from the crowd.
Henderson was then saluted by the Kop after the final whistle, the captain warmly clapping back as the fans chanted his name following another classy, all-action display.
Trent’s quintet
Alexander-Arnold’s assist for Matip means the right-back has laid on nine goals in his last 10 Anfield appearances.
The No.66 has now set up a goal in each of his last five home games for the Reds and, after registering 16 assists in 2018-19, already has two to his name this season.