Jamie Carragher blasted Liverpool’s defending in the lead-up to Arsenal’s second goal on Sunday as a “shambles”.
The Gunners started fast out of the traps, with Gabriel Martinelli handing the hosts a lead inside one minute. Liverpool found a route back into the game through Darwin Nunez, who drew them level just past the half-hour mark.
That equalising goal coincided with Jurgen Klopp’s men growing in confidence and starting to dictate proceedings and with just one minute to go of the first half, the Merseysiders won a free-kick inside the hosts' half.
The visitors clearly saw it as an opportunity to grab a lead just before half-time and therefore opted to send all their key aerial threats forward. Yet in doing so, they also left themselves vulnerable at a crucial moment in the game.
Sure enough, the free-kick crossed in by Konstantinos Tsimikas was a poor one, as was the reaction of his Liverpool teammates which leads to a fast and dangerous counter-attack.
The Liverpool left-back put too much curve on his cross, meaning it landed on the edge of the Arsenal box, rather than inside it. Arsenal made first contact from the initial knockdown, and then it was their players who sprinted out fasted, while too many Liverpool stars were left flat-footed and ball-watching.
Thiago was hovering just outside the action along with Jordan Henderson, tasked with sweeping up the ball if it came their way, yet the former Bayern midfielder was too slow to close it down and got bypassed by Gabriel Jesus.
As a result, Liverpool suddenly found themselves in a three-against-three situation which Arsenal took full advantage of as Martinelli slid the ball across the goal for Bukayo Saka to fire home and restore the host's lead.
Liverpool did draw level again in the second half, however Saka got on the scoresheet from the penalty spot to secure all three points late in the second period.
It was the naivety shown late in the first half though that led to Carragher taking to Twitter to criticise his former side: “Shocking that, 1 minute to go until half time. Another defensive shambles.”
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Discussing the key moment after the game, Klopp admitted it was a “bad decision” by his side to commit so many players forward: “(At the time) I think with advantages for us, more possession, more finishes, these kind of things. Then we make a bad decision before half-time with the free-kick and that's the situation where you ignore a free-kick – I'm completely guilty for that.
“That's an excuse from my side, you can say I was surprised... 'Yeah, what are we doing?' But then the boys are convinced, 'Let's score a goal.' But we didn't, we conceded one on the other end. Like after the worst possible start, now we had the worst possible end to the first half.”
The defeat for Liverpool means they’re now 14 points behind the league leaders and six outside of the top four. They are both gaps that could very well be extended this weekend when the Reds take on champions Manchester City at Anfield.
