- Gunners suffered narrow defeat on Merseyside
- Visitors struggled to pose attacking threat
- Head coach refutes claims he was conservative
The north London outfit mustered more efforts on goal than the hosts – 11 compared to nine from Arne Slot’s Reds – but rarely troubled Alisson as the Brazil international was able to collect a first clean sheet of 2025-26.
Dominik Szoboszlai proved to be the match-winner for Liverpool, with the versatile Hungarian – who is filling in as a makeshift right-back at present – crashing a spectacular free-kick in off the post with seven minutes left on the clock.
Questions have been asked of Arsenal‘s tactics against potential Premier League title rivals, but Arteta told reporters of his approach: “We didn’t do our game plan to frustrate them, we did it to win it. I think we elevated the game and the dominance to a point that they have to raise it, they did, especially from the 60th to 78th minute, when then you could see that there were no margins in the game.
“And then when that happens, the game is going to be decided in two ways. One, with an individual error and two, with a magic moment. So they created a moment that was incredible, that has won the game and that was the difference, nothing else.”
Arteta added on starting with a supposedly conservative midfield trio of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino, with Eberechi Eze, Ethan Nwaneri and Martin Odegaard left on the bench: “Well, that’s what we had. Martin Odegaard was injured, Kai [Havertz] cannot play, Merino is a player that is incredible arriving from there. We played with three attacking players, two attacking full-backs. After the game, I think it’s too easy to say that.”
Arsenal remain third in the table at the first international break, with six points from three games so far, and will be hoping to have key men fit for a home date with Nottingham Forest on September 13.
