Liverpool v Arsenal: Premier League – live
Key events
27 mins: After 20 minutes I was about to describe how dangerous Arsenal looked in attacking areas, especially on the press and from set-pieces. Any confidence they might have gained from that initial spell, however, has truly dissipated. It’s one-way traffic, a “challenging period” as Gary Neville has just said on commentary.
25 mins: Díaz nearly bags an accidental second, looking to cross from the left but mishitting it and nearly catching Raya out. It lands on the roof of the net, thankfully for Arsenal.
The visitors are on the ropes here. Don’t be surprised to see a third go in soon.
24 mins: Jones spins and arrows a shot just wide of Raya’s far post. Actually, it’s a corner, so the keeper must have got fingertips to that – good save. Liverpool look like scoring everytime they surge forward.
22 mins: Just 1 minutes and 27 seconds between those goals. And Mikel Arteta has a face like thunder. Anfield is now in proper party mode, red balloons everywhere!
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (Díaz, 21)
Talk about Arsenal’s defence napping … they are WIDE OPEN here and Luis Díaz has an empty net to tap home a quickfire second!
Salah’s penetrative pass started it off, Szoboszlai has the vision to square it for Díaz and the Colombian could not miss.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal (Gakpo, 20)
Gakpo runs into trouble when it looked simpler to score or to square to Salah … no matter, the ball comes in a few seconds later and he scores! Instant redemption.
That’s a good cross by Robertson, which caught Arsenal napping, and Gakpo heads home at the near post. 1-0 to the champions …
18 mins: Salah gives the assistant ref an earful after bundling into the back of Lewis-Skelly to concede a free-kick
Ødegaard now has a new shirt, while replays showed Andy Robertson to be virtually choke-holding Saka while challenging for a header. It’s all going on.
16 mins: Liverpool line up their defence rather deeper for another Ødegaard free-kick – and opt to stay there, rather than employ that dangerous offside trap. No advantage is taken by Arsenal this time though.
15 mins: Ødegaard’s shirt now has a massive rip down the front of it following a rather physical skirmish …
Arsenal are pressing high and well but Partey and Trossard make an almighty mess out of a very promising opening, after Partey nicked it off a dawdling Curtis Jones.
12 mins: Anthony Taylor, who is officiating his 400th Premier League game, just partook in some very strange refereeing. He had his whistle to his mouth and pointed his arm to indicate a (very definite) foul from Van Dijk on Ødegaard and then immediately withdrew the decision, allowing play to continue.
Hard to explain, that one.
11 mins: So, 10 minutes have passed and both teams have carved out significant openings without converting them. Which bodes well for the next 80 minutes’ entertainment for neutrals.
9 mins: I’ve had a couple of emails questioning my use of the word ‘sheepish’ to describe Ødegaard’s expression as Arsenal emerged for the guard of honour.
I stand by it.
8 mins: Super save from Raya! Salah finds space on the right and squares it for Luis Diaz, who probably should have found the corner of the goal. Instead he found a diving Arsenal goalkeeper.
6 mins: Arsenal have started the brighter here but Bradley squeezes Martinelli out on the left, with Liverpool’s defence trying to hold firm.
There’s no shortage of intensity in the early stages, despite the dead rubber nature of the game.
4 mins: What a chance! Liverpool stepped up to play the offside trap from the free-kick and Bukayo Saka, who was a good yard or so onside, had time to tuck it beyond Alisson but didn’t get his contact right and missed. Wow.
3 mins: Arsenal have an early free-kick opportunity. Ødegaard will whip this in from the left…
An email from Stephen G:
As much as I adore Slot for winning the league, and winning the league in a post-Covid world, his treatment of Chiesa has been abhorrent, throughout the season we’ve been told Chiesa isn’t match fit, or he isn’t at that premier level just yet.
I can only think of Robbie Keane in the same light, a striker that scored a brace and then was subsequently dropped by Benitez sent back to Spurs. I can’t think of a forward treated less fair. Chiesa came on in a terrible cup final and scored a goal, and was never to be heard of again, except a measly eight minutes recently and despite us having the league won and no jeopardy at all.
Jota has been sub-par along with Nunez. And with Chiesa being the first signing (technically) of this era, quite frankly it has been a waste of time, a lot of money and doesn’t bode well for the future.
This is the one worry I have for the future of LFC. Slot is so strict on his selection. Like why have Trent in the squad at all?!
1 min: So an Arsenal win would mean they are guaranteed a Champions League spot and would likely see them finish second after the teams below them dropped points this weekend.
The visitors are, unusually, in white shorts with their black tops.
KICK OFF
We are under way!
There wasn’t a huge amount of gusto in the applause from some of those Arsenal players, but they fulfilled their duty, sporting gesture and all that.
Time for action now. Can the Gunners puncture the party atmosphere around this stadium in the next 90 plus minutes?
Martin Ødegaard sheepishly leads the Arsenal players out onto the Anfield turf, to a mixed reception from Liverpool’s fans.
Now here come those Liverpool players to walk through …
“Doctor’s advice” is the reason given for Declan Rice’s absence. Mikel Arteta tells Sky Sports that the England international couldn’t train post-Paris and is not fit.
“The fact that he’s leaving is one of the reasons to play Conor [Bradley],” says Arne Slot on his decision to put Trent Alexander-Arnold on the bench.
A rare case, then, of those Sky pre-match interviews actually offering some genuine insight.
Full times in the early games:
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Manchester United 0-2 West Ham
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Nottingham Forest 2-2 Leicester
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Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Crystal Palace
United and Spurs continue to put all their chips in the Europa League final basket, while Forest spurn the opportunity to make up ground in the top five race.
It feels like the Liverpool bench today is rather telling. It contains Caoimhin Kelleher, Wataru Endo, Dawin Núñez and Trent Alexander-Arnold, all of whom are likely – or certain in the case of Alexander-Arnold – to leave the club in the summer.
It’s strange that the title winners find themselves in need of a reset, of sorts, but that’s the slightly odd situation facing Arne Slot this summer.
An absolute ridiculous El Clásico is currently going on. Five goals in 35 minutes?!
Follow it live here.
Let’s not forget Arsenal are going to give Liverpool, the new Premier League champions, a guard of honour today. It will really rankle with Mikel Arteta and everyone connected with the Gunners to do so, but Arteta graciously gave credit to Arne Slot’s side in his pre-match press conference:
They deserve that. They’ve been the best team, they’ve been the most consistent, and what Arne and the coaching staff have done has been fascinating, it’s been really good. They fully deserve it, and that’s the sport. If somebody’s better, you have to approve and accept and try to reach that level.
Scorelines to make fans of both Liverpool and Arsenal happy:
That Europa League final should be an absolute doozy.
‘No Rice’ is trending on X and it’s unrelated to my Saturday night takeaway order. The reason for Declan Rice’s absence from the Arsenal matchday squad isn’t fully clear but it’s possible he’s being rested after his midweek exertions as the Gunners exited the Champions League against PSG.
How Mikel Arteta’s team cope without the influential midfielder is going to be interesting. There are two differing views on what Rice offers to this side: some say he’s the central lynchpin, others argue his influence is overstated. Let’s see who’s right – Arsenal are likely to come under plenty of pressure at an expectant Anfield today.
Team news
Liverpool: Alisson; Bradley, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones, Szoboszlai, Salah, Gakpo, Díaz.
Subs: Kelleher, Endo, Núñez, Mac Allister, Elliott, Jota, Tsimikas, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah.
Arsenal: Raya; White, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly; Partey, Merino, Ødegaard; Trossard, Martinelli, Saka.
Subs: Neto, Tierney, Timber, Zinchenko, Sterling, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji, Henry-Francis, Nwaneri.
Preamble
What a shame for the neutrals this game doesn’t mean more. It’s a classic case of what might have been. A title decider? A ding-ding top-of-the-table clash? A titanic battle between first and second with echoes of 1989, Michael Thomas and all that?
Liverpool’s ruthless efficiency under Arne Slot and Arsenal’s many shortcomings, especially in the Premier League this season, mean it will be none of the above. It’s little more than two teams playing for pride, with the newly-crowned Reds – who will get a guard of honour from their nearest title ‘challengers – looking to put a marker down against the Gunners.
The gap at the summit could grow to a whopping 18 points by the end of the day, although the visitors will hope to cut it to 12 by praying – as Chelsea did last week – that Liverpool will be on the proverbial beach. Team news will drop in the next post; then we’ll get into the meat of the action. It’s a 4.30pm kick-off, UK time.
