Liverpool 5, Arsenal 1: First Thoughts

Holy. Cow. Liverpool swat away Arsenal to go nine points clear.

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Liverpool 5 - 1 Arsenal

Liverpool: Firmino 13’, 15’, 65’ (PEN), Mané 31’, Salah 45+2’ (PEN)

Arsenal: Maitland-Niles 11’

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• PRE-MATCH: Liverpool have the chance to go 9 points clear at the time, at least for the time being, if they win today. So maybe let’s do that?
• Solid start from Liverpool in the first five minutes. They’ve had one good attempt, and seem to be having no problems finding their way through the midfield.
• Fabinho mishits a pass in Liverpool’s defensive half, and it nearly leads to an Arsenal goal, first on a shot from Iwobi and then again in the resulting corner. Yiiiikes. Got away with that one.
• goal :( - Maitland-Niles 11’ - It’s two minutes of insanity from Liverpool who totally lose their cool, and it leads to Arsenal scoring the first goal against the run of play.
• GOALLLLLLLLLLL! Firmino 14’ - What a weird, scrappy, beautiful goal that all came down to Firmino. He turns Torreira around to find space in the midfield and get the ball into Salah, who is onside. Salah manages to get a shot off. It’s deflected, but Firmino goes around Leno to—
• GOALLLLLL! Firmino 15’ - I couldn’t even finish writing about that goal before Arsenal lose it in midfield. It’s Firmino again, getting the ball, sliding through the Arsenal defense and making his own goal. What fallow period now?
• Arsenal play themselves back into it with a few dangerous setpieces, but Liverpool weather the storm effectively.
• GOAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL! 31’ Mané - Glorious, glorious goal that starts with a very poor corner. Robertson saves it and sends a perfect ball into Salah who times his run perfectly to dink a little pass across the face of goal to the oncoming Mané. It’s 3-1!
• Gini shows his strength on the ball by keeping possession and earning Liverpool a free kick in the process.
• Liverpool penalty! The move starts with an impressive pass from Alisson that bisects the whole damn midfield to find Salah, who wins the penalty when he’s clearly fouled by Kolasinac in the box.
• GOALLLLL!!!!!! Salah 45+2’ - Salah scores his own penalty despite Leno getting a hand on it.
• Liverpool have not played particularly well, but Arsenal have been quite poor, particularly in defense. I’ll take the lead though, and maybe another four in the second half too?
• HALFTIME: Our front three have all scored already and it’s only halftime. I love this game. I love this time. I love 2018. I love all of you.
• Liverpool absolutely bossing it as the second half starts with two quick goal scoring opportunities, first for Mané then for Salah.
• After the first few close calls, Arsenal wake up a bit and very nearly score through Aubameyang, who skies a toe poke while also getting called on a close offside decision.
• Liverpool penalty! Kolasinac concedes a SECOND penalty, this time fouling Lovren in the scrum before a Liverpool free kick.
• GOALLLLLLLLLLL! Firmino 64’ - Bobby gets the hat trick as he scores the resulting penalty!!! Bobby! Firmino! Bobby! Firmino!
• Gini, who had a FANTASTIC game, gets subbed off for Adam Lallana for the last 15 or so minutes.
• Robertson, on the other hand, has not had his best game today, gets subbed out for Nathaniel Clyne after skirting close to getting a second yellow card.
• The captain really wants his goal, but no luck this time.
• FINAL: WOW. Up the undefeated, Mighty Reds!

We’ll be back shortly to take an in-depth look at everything that happened in today’s game with the full recap. Until then, let us know your take on the ups and downs of the match in the comments, and if you haven’t already, join the community on the Liverpool Offside, where we’ll have full coverage and lively in-game discussion for every match this season.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com