Arsenal are top of the Premier League after Kai Havertz scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday — the Gunners' first league victory at this ground since September 2012, sealed with a defensive performance that survived everything the hosts could throw at it.
The winning goal arrived in the 16th minute and it was gifted, then finished, in a matter of seconds. Alisson Becker's poor pass out from the back sold Jeremy Jacquet short and Arsenal pounced, Martin Odegaard's press winning the ball high before Bruno Guimaraes spread it wide to Noni Madueke. Madueke found the overlapping Declan Rice, whose low cross across the six-yard box was turned home at the far post by Havertz in front of the Kop, as Sky Sports recorded on the day.
It was a landmark strike for the German. According to Opta, via Flashscore, Havertz is now the all-time leading German scorer in Premier League history with 46 goals, overtaking Ilkay Gundogan's 45. Rice, meanwhile, registered his fifth assist of the league season — the best mark in the division — on an afternoon when Mikel Arteta started him despite a hamstring scare, one of several selection calls covered in the confirmed lineups before kick-off.
Liverpool Throw Everything — And Hit Everything Except the Net
Liverpool's response to falling behind was ferocious, and for long spells this looked like a game the hosts could not possibly fail to score in. They recorded 28 touches in the opposition box in the first half alone, the most on record by any side in the first half of a Premier League game against Arsenal. Yet the equaliser would not come.
Florian Wirtz clipped the crossbar with a free-kick after Jurrien Timber had fouled Alexander Isak just outside the box. Alexis Mac Allister headed over unmarked from eight yards after a beautiful Milos Kerkez cross, in what was probably the chance of the match. Isak himself drilled efforts wide either side of half-time, and Virgil van Dijk's flicked header from a corner left David Raya scrambling to beat the Swedish striker to the rebound.
Liverpool will also leave convinced they were denied a penalty. Isak's shirt was clearly held by Timber as he rose to meet a cross in the first half, nothing was given by referee Andy Madley or by VAR, and former official Peter Walton, writing in The Times, was blunt: the pull was lengthy, it impeded Isak, and it should have been a penalty. A second appeal, when Cody Gakpo went down under a challenge from Christos Tzolis, was also waved away, and the Anfield crowd gave Madley a hostile reception down the tunnel at half-time.
Andoni Iraola turned to his bench in search of the breakthrough. Dominik Szoboszlai, back from a hamstring problem, replaced the teenager Trey Nyoni just before the hour — Nyoni departing to a warm reception after a full Premier League debut, in the biggest game of the season, in which he never once looked out of place. Rio Ngumoha was given the final 25 minutes, Ronald Araujo saw a shot on the swivel blocked by two defenders, and in the 87th minute Iraola went all in, sending on Lewis Koumas, Victor Munoz and Kostas Tsimikas. As our live report from Anfield charted as the game unfolded, the pressure was relentless. The finish, all afternoon, was missing.
Arsenal Bend, Survive the Storm and See It Out
What Arsenal produced after their goal was a masterclass in protecting a lead at the hardest ground in the country to protect one. Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhaes defended their box superbly, Rice and Guimaraes screened, and when Liverpool did break through, the champions had one genuine scare at the other end to remind everyone they carried a threat: Tzolis, making his first appearance since September 19, curled a first-time effort that looked destined for the bottom corner on 73 minutes, only for Alisson to get down with a brilliant fingertip save — a small act of redemption for the error that decided the game.
The temperature rose as the clock ran down. Bradley Barcola was booked just before half-time, Noni Madueke and Milos Kerkez followed in the second half, and a coming-together after Mac Allister brought down Odegaard — and appeared to slap at him as he stayed down — ended, after a VAR check, with yellow cards for Mac Allister and Timber and nothing more. There were no red cards, no penalties and no further goals. Arteta introduced Myles Lewis-Skelly for Guimaraes, then Viktor Gyokeres and Piero Hincapie late on, and Arsenal navigated six minutes of stoppage time with ten men behind the ball and their away end in full voice.
So What Does It Mean for the Title Race?
Everything about this result is significant. Arsenal move to 24 points from nine games, three clear of Manchester City at the top after City's 1-0 home defeat to Brighton on Saturday. They have done it without Bukayo Saka and William Saliba, three days after the humiliation of a Carabao Cup exit to League Two Fleetwood Town, and at a ground where they had not won a league game in 14 years — since September 2012, when Arteta himself started in midfield for the Gunners. Liverpool's long unbeaten home league run against Arsenal, 13 meetings, is over too.
For Liverpool, the cost is real. A win would have closed the gap to Arsenal to three points and announced a title challenge; instead, defeat leaves Iraola's side on 15 points, nine behind the leaders, with their run of five straight wins in all competitions snapped by a single mistake and a single afternoon of wasteful finishing. The performance — the box touches, the chances, Nyoni's debut, the response to going behind — says this Liverpool side belongs in the conversation. The result says the conversation is now being led, clearly, from north London.
Beyond the Final Whistle: This is the win that changes how Arsenal's season is talked about. Champions are supposed to go to Anfield, score once, suffer for 74 minutes and leave with everything — and that is exactly what Arteta's side have done, shorthanded, under pressure, at the ground that has haunted them for 14 years. Liverpool played well enough to win most games. Arsenal played like a team that intends to keep its title.
Is this the result that makes Arsenal title favourites in your eyes — or will Liverpool's missed chances and the penalty that never was come back to matter more? Let us know in the comments.
