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There will be no 100-point gloss for the champions. At the Emirates Stadium Arsenal produced a stirring display of deep rearguard defence, leavened by two moments of slapstick from the Liverpool backline. It was enough to inflict a third league defeat on Jürgen Klopp’s team, and to provide a most unexpected twist after another piece of defensive frailty had left the red and white shirts a goal down after 19 minutes, and looking once again like a porous unit.
All three first-half goals in this 2-1 Arsenal victory had come from defensive errors triggered by energetic, well-drilled forward pressing. The fact that the two most decisive came from Virgil van Dijk and Alisson was both a surprise and a tribute to the sustained defensive concentration of Mikel Arteta’s team, who will take great heart from this show of resilience. Continue reading...