Liverpool arrived at the Emirates on the back off a dominant victory over Chelsea, but they left with their tails in between their legs.
The Premier League leaders were no match for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who roared their way to a well-deserved 3-1 victory that saw Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard all find the back of the net.
It wasn’t perfect from Arsenal, however, with Gabriel Magalhaes the scorer of a comical own goal late in the first half, but none of the fans in attendance will care about that at this point. A huge win.
Here’s how the Gunners fared in 90min‘s player ratings.
Jorginho had started just four Premier League games before this one but was thrust into the limelight here. Was it tactical? Or perhaps a consequence of Kai Havertz being needed in attack to fill in for the injured Gabriel Jesus? Either way, it was a masterstroke.
The Italian was dominant defensively but did his best work in possession, pulling the strings and linking up everything for Arsenal. He also handed Declan Rice more freedom to seek out danger and destroy at the source.
Rice could have easily taken the Player of the Match award, while goalscorer Gabriel Martinelli wasn’t far off either, and even an own goal didn’t do too much harm to Gabriel Magalhaes’ performance at the back.
In the end, however, you could not take your eyes off Rice, who did everything asked of him at an immense level. He bullied Liverpool’s usually energetic midfield into submission and played a crucial role in this victory.
Liverpool’s forward line were far from their best here but William Saliba still allowed them back into the game with an uncharacteristic lapse in judgement.
As Luis Diaz went charging through on goal, Saliba gambled on shielding the ball all the way back to his goalkeeper but perhaps did not make his intentions clear, and that split-second of uncertainty saw Diaz fire against Gabriel for the own goal.
Who was truly at fault for the own goal? It was the only bad memory from the game for Arsenal, with Raya perhaps not coming off his line when he should have expected Saliba to block the ball back to him.
Rushing off your line can be catastrophic – Alisson can attest to that – so Raya may have made the right decision, but he definitely didn’t go about it the right way. Still, a 6/10 is hardly indicative of a bad game.
