The Gunners regained their leading position ahead of Manchester City by disposing of the Reds, at worst (3-2).
By taking advantage of the defensive errors of Liverpool, beaten 3-2, Arsenal took over the lead of the Premier League from Manchester City on the 10th day and beat a new rival, a week after Tottenham (3-1). With 24 points, the Gunners are back in front of the defending champions for a length, while Liverpool, with ten points in eight games, one less than Arsenal, already seems irremediably left behind in the title race. But the ranking is almost the least of Jürgen Klopp’s worries at the moment, as his team has still shown defensive shortcomings which prohibit him from any ambition.
From the 58th second of play, Arsenal had sunk into their defense to allow Gabriel Martinelli to open the scoring (1-0), after a superb pass from Martin Odegaard. It was quite simply the fastest goal in history for Arsenal in this confrontation. On the Londoners’ second goal, in added time in the first act, scored by Bukayo Saka, on receiving a center from Martinelli (2-1, 45th + 5), Trent Alexander Arnold will still be singled out for be rushed to the Brazilian, who erased him with a hook, instead of staying in the axis to block the trajectory of the center. The right side, hit in the ankle in the 23rd minute, did not resume after the break.
The winning goal came from a penalty for a foul by Thiago Alcantara on Gabriel Jesus, converted by Saka for his double (3-2, 76th). Seconds earlier, the Gunners, in a strong moment, had forced Alisson into a double save. Admittedly, Klopp will have had the consolation of seeing Darwin Nunez find his way to the nets to equalize at 1-1 (34th) and Roberto Firmino, who replaced Luis Diaz, injured in the 41st, also equalize at 2-2 (53rd ). But after a capital trip to Glasgow Rangers in the Champions League on Wednesday, Manchester City will come to Anfield to challenge the Reds and Erling Haaland could have a lot of fun if the German does not find the solution very quickly.
Three goals in three games for Scamacca
At the start of the afternoon, West Ham had scored a third consecutive success in all competitions, beating Fulham (3-1). Fulham, who had opened the scoring in the 5th minute by Andreas Pereira, is still in 9th place, but he remains on two defeats in a row after the 4-1 conceded at home against Newcastle. David Moyes’ men, who are back in 13th place with 10 points, had equalized thanks to Jarrod Bowen, from the penalty spot (1-1, 29th), before the inevitable Gianluca Scamacca gave them the advantage with his third goal in three matches shortly after the hour mark (2-1, 62nd). At the very end of the match, Michail Antonio widened the gap (3-1, 90+1).
In the other match at 3:00 p.m., Patrick Vieira’s men also overthrew their opponents after an opener in the 10th minute by Patrick Strujik (0-1). The Eagles gleaned their second victory of the season only and climb to 15th place thanks to a 100% French equalizer, Michael Olise taking a free kick for the head of Odsonne Edouard, already a scorer against Chelsea last week (1-1, 24th), before Eberechi Eze offered them three precious points a quarter of an hour from the end (2-1, 76th). For Leeds, nothing is going well. After seven points taken over the first three days, the Peacocks have only taken two in five games, even if they are two games behind.