Arsenal hold on for first league win at Liverpool since 2012 after Kai Havertz pounces early
Kai Havertz’s 16th-minute goal secured Arsenal a hard-fought 1-0 win against Liverpool and a three-point lead at the top of the Premier League
It was a game when Arsenal showed their ruthless side and all of the champion knowhow that they accumulated over the course of last season. They headed back to London having made a statement. Irrespective of what happens to Manchester City over their financial rule breaches, Arsenal remain the Premier League’s team to beat.
Mikel Arteta was in the Arsenal midfield when the club last won a league fixture at Anfield; it was in September 2012, although his memories are a little hazy given the concussion that he sustained in a collision with Jordan Henderson.
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Arteta has a clear-eyed focus on retaining the title and this was an occasion for his hopes to surge. Kai Havertz’s first goal in 10 appearances proved the difference but the victory was rooted in Arsenal’s capacity to control and frustrate.
It was a tough watch for the Liverpool crowd and they bayed throughout at what they perceived as Arsenal’s use of the dark arts. Arteta’s team won 18 free-kicks and there were some soft ones – each was the prompt for an eruption from the Kop. It said plenty that Virgil van Dijk responded to the full-time whistle by sarcastically applauding the referee, Andy Madley. The Liverpool captain was booked.
The home team had their grievances. Alexander Isak felt Jurriën Timber grab a handful of his shirt in the 21st minute as he tried to reach a Bradley Barcola cross in front of goal. It was a mystery as to why the video assistant referee did not alert Madley. Van Dijk could also be heard shouting in the tunnel afterwards at Noni Madueke, saying the Arsenal winger should have had a second yellow card.
Madueke, who was booked for a foul on Barcola, took a risk when he initiated a touch of foreheads with Alexis Mac Allister towards the end after a melee had broken out. It was sparked by Mac Allister’s furious reaction to Martin Ødegaard’s winning of a free-kick. Liverpool, however, lost any claim to the moral high ground when Mac Allister crumpled to the turf in an attempt to get Madueke sent off. The Arsenal player survived. It would have been a harsh dismissal.
In the final analysis, Liverpool did not do enough. They provided high‑energy enjoyment in the first half but they fizzled out, the invention drying up. They finished with no shots on target as their five-match winning run in all competitions ground to a halt. Goals remain a problem for them in the league and the truth was Arsenal kept them out with a measure of comfort. Arsenal’s previous trip to the north‑west had ended in Carabao Cup humiliation at Fleetwood on Tuesday night. This was much more like it.
Liverpool brought the intensity at the outset with Trey Nyoni snapping into challenges on his full league debut. The 19-year-old’s first action was to leave something on Ødegaard and, not long after that, he did the same to Havertz. Nyoni was fortunate to emerge without a yellow card.
The tone was set early, the Kop teeming with indignation at what they saw as Arsenal’s readiness to go down easily and stay down. The match was shaped by Havertz’s goal on 16 minutes and from a Liverpool point of view, it was a self-inflicted wound. Alisson tried to be too cute with a short pass out from his area for Jérémy Jacquet; the weight and direction of it was wrong. But when Ødegaard pounced, a stunning piece of interplay followed. Arsenal worked it over and up the right for Declan Rice to flash over the final ball, low and across the corridor of a six-yard box of uncertainty. Havertz, a player who needed an easy tap-in, got one.
Liverpool responded with more fire and they could have scored before the interval, Mac Allister blowing the big chance – a free header from Milos Kerkez’s cross in the 43rd minute. Moments earlier, Florian Wirtz had whipped a free-kick from the left‑hand side against the crossbar.
Arsenal flickered on the break. There were a few times in the first half when they flooded men forward and there were possibilities. This was a long way from being a smash‑and‑grab. Havertz narrowly failed to get a touch to a Bruno Guimarães cross-cum-shot while Timber could not react in front of goal after Madueke volleyed a Christos Tzolis cross back from an acute angle.
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Arsenal had the match where they wanted it. They backed themselves to keep Liverpool at bay. It was about their game management. They have become masters at drawing the sting and the longer the second half went on the more assured Arsenal looked. They stifled Liverpool and there remained the sense they could land something on the counter.
When Jacquet slipped in the 68th minute, Arsenal went left to Tzolis and he almost teed up Ødegaard. With Alisson out of position, Jacquet got back to make an important intervention. Tzolis also forced an excellent save with a first‑time shot for the far corner. Liverpool fought a losing battle to keep a lid on their emotions. They huffed and they puffed. The equaliser never looked like coming.
