ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool

The Reds suffered just a second top-flight defeat of the season at Emirates Stadium – and the boss conceded his team could have few complaints about the outcome.

Bukayo Saka put the Gunners ahead early on; however, Gabriel Magalhaes' own goal sent the teams in level at the interval.

Liverpool were improved after the break, but fell behind once more when Gabriel Martinelli capitalised on a defensive mix-up to roll in Arsenal's second.

Ibrahima Konate was sent off for a second booking as the contest edged towards its conclusion and Leandro Trossard grabbed a third for the hosts in stoppage time.

Read on for Klopp's assessment from his post-match press conference…

On Liverpool's performance and the result...

Right from the start it didn't really look like our day but maybe we could have turned it into our day – second half, the start was really good. Again, it is just proof, evidence, whatever you want, what momentum makes. First half, Arsenal started well, that's clear. We didn't play enough football, we needed to get used a little bit to each other, like the right-side triangle – [it was] tricky to find, let me say it like that. From the start, always when Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] and Curtis [Jones] were on the ball and could turn and could get out of this man-marking situation the pitch was really open for us. There we could have found Trent [Alexander-Arnold] one or two times more often, I would say: that could have caused them even more problems.

Actually, second half we were there, we now understood how the game goes. We now had the momentum after the late equaliser in the first half, but then we concede a second goal – and it was a very strange goal. Now we spoke in the dressing room with all people involved and it is just unlucky. Can you head the ball directly? Yes, but it flies strange. Then, should you expect Martinelli brings the body a little bit? Yes, but we didn't and then all of a sudden the ball rolls there and he has an easy goal. That doesn't happen very often, will not happen very often, but it happened before and can happen. It obviously made the job a bit more tricky.

We made changes as well around that time. Trent, [it] was never planned that he plays 90, it was clear we had to take him off a bit early and stuff like this. [We] brought on Darwin [Nunez] and Harvey [Elliott] and these kind of things. It all could have worked, but then the 2-1 is obviously not great, the momentum changed completely again, the stadium was there. It was still kind of an open game with not a lot from us – and then we had a red card and that obviously made it really tricky to come back. Arsenal deserve the three points, there is no doubt about that: they scored three and we had one shot on target, so that's obviously the one stat that shows the most. We should have had more of that, we could have had more of that, but because of the story of the game it didn't happen.

On whether fatigue was a factor in Liverpool's performance...

I understand 100 per cent where you are coming from and stuff like this. I have to make a line-up. Would I make the same line-up again? Yes. That's actually the only thing how I can judge it. After seeing the game, maybe not.

Without seeing the game, I would do it the same. Dom [Szoboszlai] couldn't start, he is out injured actually, so we had to make another change as well and these kind of things.

That's all normal. It's not about that. With these boys, we can play much better football. That's actually the one thing we take – we want to and have to play better football and we will. For today, again it's a kind of a strange one because, yes, they started well, but that's what you should expect. Home game, Arsenal, we beat them here a few weeks ago in the FA Cup… actually the first half in the FA Cup was a similar first half, they had more chances in that game than today but then we didn't concede and that's obviously a big difference.

Could we have defended better? Yes, definitely, 100 per cent, but that's how it is and they probably deserved the goal with the game they played, but we stayed in the game and 1-0 is really not a result where you should think white flag and go home. We got a present for our first goal, we forced it, but then, as I said, the story of the second half, we will never know how it would have been if we don't concede the goal. Our two main guns, a misunderstanding, that just shows they are human beings. That actually makes the thing they usually do even more special because sometimes you forget they are humans as well. For today, the boys are not happy, we are not happy, 100 per cent – but that's it now, we don't have to make more of a game. If you play an away game at Arsenal, you can play super here and lose. I would have loved to have seen that, but it's possible. That's why we take it, deal with it and go from here.

On Manchester City having two games in hand on Liverpool…

Look, if you want to find a specialist who becomes champion in England then I am probably not the right person to ask because most of the time we finished second, so I'm sorry to say that. You have to win football games, I know that, and as many as you can. This today would have been a great one. But, how I said, if you can only become champions and we don't lose any game, that makes life really tricky. Since the final whistle I didn't think a second about the amount of games of Manchester City and who they will play and how they will play. Not for a second. We have to play to our potential. We have to deal with difficulties in the game, around the games and play our soul on the pitch, if you want, and then we will see where it ends up. But there is no guarantee for nothing.

But I didn't become nervous now because of two games in hand for City. We always expect City to win all of the games, to be 100 per cent honest, we don't even have to watch them – even when they are 1-0 down and then it's 3-1 or whatever, it's always like this. It's all fine. For us, nothing really changed. We would have loved to win here, got a point or whatever – actually we wanted to win here. But for the whole 90 minutes we were not good enough. We had our phases and developed into the game, that's good. If we could have kept that going without all the other circumstances then that game could have looked differently, definitely. And we would still sit here and say Arsenal had the better start in the game but then we were there. But now we just have to congratulate Arsenal for three points.

On looking to start another unbeaten run...

That's actually the idea but we didn't want to stop the run here. We didn't lose recently an awful lot of football games, we know that. That means dealing with defeats is a challenge – for humankind actually. We have now a rather longer week, I think we play on Saturday, so we will use that for rest, we will use that for training and will be properly prepared for the next game. Nobody here expects, in our dressing room at least, that we just will fly over Burnley or whatever. They fight for their targets, it's a really talented group, unlucky in moments and stuff like this. But it's a home game and we can turn things around, meaning the first step, and then we will see. Today nobody celebrates the champion and nobody is relegated as far as I know, so we have all the chance to create our own destiny. Let's see what happens.

On whether there will be a 'major dissection' of this game or whether he just sees it as a 'bad day at the office'...

Neither. I don't just go over it. But I spoke to the boys already, we want to play better football – number one. Are you allowed to win average football games? Yes, absolutely, that's fine. But for today it didn't happen. Today pretty much everything went against us. Yes, we scored more or less their goal, they scored our goal, so that equals the thing. And then we got the red card, they didn't get a red card and there were some situations that could have been different. But even with the red card then we lose 2-1, so what's that? It makes no difference but it would have looked different. Being 2-1 down with 11 v 11, that could really have looked different but it's done, I don't care about it anymore. OK, not a great day for us. Yes, a bad day in the office, definitely, but not just a bad day in the office, and we have to make sure we don't have them anymore.