Liverpool’s glaring problem remains unsolved despite vital win over Arsenal | OneFootball

Dominik Szoboszlai went for it, unlike Arsenal for most of the game, so Liverpool won it.

That might sound a little simplistic, but it did end up the difference in this unusually early match between a prospective top two. As to whether it will make a difference by the end of the season, that’s a more complicated discussion.

For now, the champions are back on top on their own, the only team left in the Premier League with a 100 per cent record – and that after only three games. Mikel Arteta has, meanwhile, lost his unbeaten record against the old “big six” which had stretched back to a 4-1 defeat by Manchester City in April 2023.

That also means that he still doesn’t have an away win against either Liverpool or City. In other words, the teams you have to better to be champions.

Worse, after a game of tactical constraint, Arsenal lost to a set piece. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go for Arteta. It instead again went Arne Slot’s way, something he has an aptitude for. Even the taking of the free kick felt a reward for Szoboszlai’s tireless work at right-back, one of those Slot interventions. The introduction of Curtis Jones was just as significant. Liverpool raised their game after that. But what a repayment from Szoboszlai.

“Unbelievable game from him,” Slot said. Unbelievable strike.

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Dominik Szoboszlai fires home Liverpool’s winning goal (Getty Images)

You won’t see many better goals this season, let alone free kicks. David Raya just puffed out his cheeks afterwards, as if to acknowledge that he had no chance as the ball flew past him and in off the post. It was perfect, if from a less-than-perfect match.

One reading is that this was essentially a 0-0 game that was decided by “a moment of magic”, as both managers put it.

Slot himself even added that this sort of game “normally ends in a draw”.

“You could use the word ‘boring’,” he said, “because neither side created many chances.” The xG was extraordinarily low. There was even the contrast to Szoboszlai’s strike of Declan Rice’s similar-range free kick sailing over the bar.

These types of games happen, and aren’t necessarily significant in the long term.

But there is the potential for some psychological impact, as well as perception. There comes a point where, to be champions, you have to ensure you make it happen yourself.

Although Liverpool were at home, with Arteta himself pointing to the very power of Anfield on such occasions, it was hard not to feel there was a greater onus on Arsenal. They are the team that have finished second three years in a row. They have to go and do it. A win here wouldn’t have been decisive, consequently, but it would have been a marker. That might be old-fashioned language but it is still relevant.

The club themselves have also spoken all summer about the “here and now”. And there are moments when you just have to seize it. We’ve seen it in the Premier League before, like Chelsea in 2016-17 or Liverpool themselves last season. Occasionally, when a team is ready to go and win the league, they ensure they get that first win in that first big crunch game.

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Mikel Arteta was left frustrated by Arsenal's defeat at Liverpool (Getty Images)

It isn’t a hard and fast rule, of course, but it can help signify a new order. The early pattern of the game only accentuated that.

Liverpool were visibly imbalanced. Their midfield two were really struggling against Arsenal’s physically powerful three. It was quite the situation to put Alexis Mac Allister back in, given that he wasn’t fit enough to play on Monday. Even Mohamed Salah again seemed isolated out on the right, and nowhere near as effective as we’re used to.

Florian Wirtz was later taken off, with Slot even laughing that “it wasn’t an injury”.

“It was a ‘welcome to the Premier League’. I don’t think he knew he could have cramp in so many places.”

Slot lauded the intensity of games like this. Arsenal seemed to have the champions boxed in, and looked like they might finally have their number.

And that is perhaps where the frustration should lie for Arsenal. Although this midfield three – Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino – were responsible for initially making Arteta’s side more authoritative, this trio were lacking in creativity.

It said much that Arsenal began to create problems for Liverpool once Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard finally came on, even if much of that was after it went to 1-0.

Arsenal might similarly point to their injuries, but then one of the intentions behind the summer business was to give them exactly that depth. They had options.

Arteta still insisted this was a system “to win the game ... not to contain them”.

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Eberechi Eze came on to the pitch for his Arsenal debut (Getty Images)

That might be true, but there was a lingering sense of trying to bring the game down to fine details rather than open it out; to expand. That only came at the end.

Slot put it down to the type of game it was. "Normally Arsenal and us are able to create more chances in a game, but it says something about the structures.”

Arteta didn’t seem too agitated about the result or performance, for his part, other than when questioned about a perceived conservatism.

That was when he dug in. His sizable number of critics may say the performance was exactly what he wanted, if not the result… but that such a system runs the risk of producing such results.

As regards to the long term, though, the performance possibly points to more issues for Liverpool.

With Arsenal, after all, you can see what they’re about.

The structure is generally fine. Cristhian Mosquera was superb coming in for William Saliba. Arsenal’s only goal conceded so far this season has been a world-class long-range strike. What is missing is the verve of the attack, but that will surely come when more of their best attackers are starting. None of Eze, Odegaard or Bukayo Saka were put in from the start here; two down to fitness, one because it was his first game.

Liverpool do have that imbalance, though, that currently looks more challenging to solve. Is Slot really going to persist with that two-man midfield throughout this season?

Did his words indicate he thinks it’s going to be eased once Wirtz adapts to the Premier League? Will the return of Jeremie Frimpong’s runs allow Salah to be more proactive?

Is Alexander Isak – curiously unmentioned after the game – going to give them an extra dimension? Is Marc Guehi going to give them the extra defensive security? Is Milos Kerkez’s vulnerability a concern?

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Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai celebrates after scoring their winning goal (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Or, is this what Slot wants: that expansion, that risk, that assurance they have the stardust to win those games that are in the balance?

The one moment the Liverpool manager himself got agitated – or, at least, assertive – was when it was put to him that he’s had three wins that could easily have been three draws. Slot insisted that wasn’t the case for the 4-2 victory over Bournemouth.

For now, he can just point to the win. Liverpool, not for the first time in this burgeoning rivalry, have just gone and done it.