Perhaps this Arsenal really is Manchester City’s most serious challenger for the Premier League title. It returned to the top of the table, a point clear of the champion, with a 3–2 win over Liverpool, but what felt significant was less the result or the performance than the fortitude it showed to keep going in a game in which it twice let leads slip.
For Liverpool, meanwhile, there was more frustration and more disappointment. It now trails Arsenal by 14 points—admittedly with a game in hand—and looks as confused as it ever has under Jürgen Klopp. This was a slightly odd game, scrappy in parts, brilliant in others, thoroughly engaging throughout, and yet for all the twists and turns there was little disguising Arsenal’s superiority. Even last season, as Arsenal began to rise under Mikel Arteta, the thought that the gulf between the sides could be so vast so soon would have seemed absurd.
Klopp stuck with the 4-2-3-1 shape he had used in the 2–0 Champions League in over Rangers on Tuesday, a shape that, in theory, offers greater defensive solidity than the 4-3-3 Klopp has habitually used, with the double pivot of Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcântara protecting the back four and the fullbacks, relieved of the burden of offering attacking width, able to play a little deeper. Trent Alexander-Arnold not merely scored against Rangers but seemed comfortable against the Rangers left side of Ryan Kent and Borna Barišić. Perhaps this, the theory went, was the solution to the ongoing debate around the right back.
