Liverpool took an early lead in the title conversation by beating Arsenal 1-0 at Anfield. Dominik Szoboszlai scored the decisive goal from a free kick, stepping into an unfamiliar defensive role after Jeremie Frimpong\u2019s injury and firing home a set piece reminiscent of what Trent Alexander-Arnold used to produce. The three points leave Liverpool top of the table with nine from three games.<\/p>\n
The match offered little in the way of dominance from either side, but the result will lift Liverpool\u2019s mood after recent fixtures in which they surrendered two-goal leads in back-to-back weeks despite ending with victories. There were also late departures for Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 and Florian Wirtz, adding to the list of concerns on Merseyside.<\/p>\n
Arsenal arrive at the international break facing more selection headaches. Bukayo Saka and William Saliba are both injured inside the first three games, and Kai Havertz has undergone surgery to address a knee problem. Saka is not expected to be sidelined for as long as last season with a hamstring issue, but an update on Saliba is awaited. Cristhian Mosquera was solid filling in for the French defender, and the impending loan of Piero Hincapi\u00e9 now looks more important.<\/p>\n
Martin \u00d8degaard returned to the side, which is a positive, but Arsenal will still reflect on missed opportunities and personnel questions. Gabriel Martinelli was ineffective in the first half against the makeshift defender Szoboszlai. Arsenal tried repeatedly to involve Martinelli and Noni Madueke in 1-v-1 situations over the top. Madueke, while not finding much joy against Milos Kerkez, appeared more comfortable on the ball. Immediately as Eberechi Eze came on, the left side seemed more lively. Eze was only announced a week ago, but fans will question Arteta\u2019s apprehensiveness in such a pivotal season.<\/p>\n
The result leaves Liverpool in front for now. How the table looks in five, 10 or 15 weeks remains to be seen, but Liverpool have made the early statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 at Anfield as Dominik Szoboszlai’s free-kick settles an early title test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,175,172],"tags":[826,223,242],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-dominik-szoboszlai","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}