Arsenal’s victory over Liverpool fueled the intrigue in the fight for gold in the English Championship

Having beaten English Championship leader Liverpool at home 3:1, Arsenal sharply heightened the intrigue in the “golden race” of the championship. Now his gap to the Liverpool team has been reduced to two points. Manchester City may be even closer to them.

The opening period of this match should have convinced those who do not follow English football very closely that the balance in it was clearly in favor of Arsenal. Well, Liverpool looks too lethargic, even sleepy in comparison. And the point, apparently, is not even in the losses of the championship leader, for example, in the absence of Mohamed Salah, who left for the African Cup and was injured there. No, the general London superiority in energy and banal speed literally hurts the eye. Here’s how, for example, Gabriel Martinelli easily runs down the left flank from Ibrahim Konate. He runs away like lightning and then crosses to Bukayo Saka, who has also already made a couple of good runs, whose head is missing a centimeter or two to meet the ball.

Those who follow English football closely would most likely refrain from jumping to hasty conclusions. This is, in general, the habit of the current Arsenal – like a bulldog that has not been fed for a month, immediately attacking the opponent, trying to solve everything in a quarter of an hour. Another thing is that it doesn’t always work out. And lately, it doesn’t work out even more often than it does—hence the failures and the resulting lag in the standings. By the way, the same thing happened in the match of these same teams in the FA Cup a month ago. Then Arsenal also attacked Liverpool, baring their fangs. But he suffered and did not let the Londoners score. And then their passion faded, and the Liverpudlians won with a score of 2:0.

The difference between the new confrontation and the previous one, however, was fundamental. This time Arsenal did not waste their onslaught. He scored. A gorgeous goal, by the way, which was turned into a masterpiece by Martin Odegaard’s jewelry work. The Norwegian dispatcher cut a subtle touch pass from the center line into the free zone to Kai Havertz, who made a mistake in a collision with goalkeeper Alison, but the rebound – a convenient rebound – went to Saka, who did not miss.

In fact, Arsenal honestly deserved to go on vacation with a margin of safety. He played more intelligently and more actively. But everything was spoiled by the only blunder in the entire first half, which occurred at the end of his life.

The episode looked exhausted. Luis Diaz tries to fight for the ball in the penalty area, but William Saliba has already placed him firmly in the body. All that remained was for goalkeeper David Raya to come out of the gate a little more decisively to pick up the ball. But for some reason Raya is in no hurry to leave. And suddenly, not switching off, Diaz still takes out the ball, pushes it to the side, and it hits the hand of Salib’s partner Gabriel Magalhães and ricochets into the net. A terrible curiosity.

In the three minutes that elapsed after the break, Liverpool hit the opposing goal three times – the same number as in the entire previous half of the match. And this outburst of his hinted, of course, that the exhausted Arsenal was again going to turn a little sour. But no, the flame did not break out of her. The Londoners, having suffered, began to behave quite decently, and Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp, about whom everyone now naturally reminds that he will almost leave his native club in the summer, even made a triple substitution, bringing Darwin Nunez and Andy Robertson onto the field at the same time and Harvey Elliott. Klopp naturally understood that if he didn’t liven up the game, he wouldn’t get three points.

Meanwhile, Arsenal almost earned a penalty immediately after this substitution. VAR and referee Anthony Taylor cleared Alexis McAllister for fouling Kai Havertz.

But Arsenal still scored, having waited for a gift from the Liverpudlians in return for Salib and Raya’s mistake. Virgil Van Dijk seemed unprepared to be nudged on the shoulder by Martinelli, who was running behind him. And a small push was enough for the outstanding defender to lose his balance and miss the ball, which Alison did not have time to reach. “Arsenal” took the lead and the spoils were as clear as the apple of one’s eye. Liverpool were finally crippled by the sending off of Ibrahim Konate at the end, who was shown a second yellow card for getting in the way of Kai Havertz and knocking him onto the turf in hockey fashion. Soon Alison also faked, missing a simple goal from Leandro Trossard.

The result intensified the “gold race” in the English Championship. Arsenal are now just two points behind Liverpool. The gap between Manchester City and him will be just as small if he gets the better of Brentford today. Moreover, the Manchester team will have a match in reserve compared to their competitors. That is, they are the “shadow” leaders.

Alexey Dospehov