KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Arsenal stamped their authority on the Premier League as the leaders continued to hold Manchester City at bay by despatching Liverpool 3-2 in north London.

The Gunners proved even more competitive than a tired-looking Liverpool team who displayed none of the intense pressing of previous seasons. Manager Jurgen Klopp’s plans were disrupted by injuries but these could not be excuses. Arsenal took an early lead, were pulled back twice and again drove forward to victory.

Arsenal’s winning goal was a penalty converted nervelessly by two-goal Bukayo Saka, one of England’s luckless spotkick takers in last year’s Euro final.

The Gunners had been playing with the sort of confidence associated with Klopp’s Liverpool until this season. However Klopp had dismissed speculation before the game about another seven-year cycle mirroring his spells at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund.

Liverpool’s campaign has been disrupted by various issues. The loss of Sadio Mane in attack had proved more damaging than the club had expected. Then there have been more injuries. Latest casualty is Brazil midfielder Arthur Melo. The Juventus loanee will be out for four months after being injured in training before Tuesday’s Champions League victory over Rangers.

Klopp took his team to north London having won only twice in the Premier League and 11 points behind the Gunners. He had also conceded the title race, saying: “From this point, does it look like we will be champions? Unfortunately not, but in all other competitions we are not out yet and nobody knows where we end up in the league. Difficult yes, impossible no. So let’s go from here.”

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, missing only forwards Emile Smith Rowe and Mohamed Elneny, approached the cash on a wave of confidence after having won their previous seven successive home league games, including the 3:1 defeat of Tottenham.

Klopp continued with the same team who had started for him in midweek with Darwen Nunez at centre-forward. But one minute was all it needed for the best-laid plans to fall apart.

Liverpool lost possession in attack and Arsenal hit them on the break. England winger Bukayo Saka raced forward and found captain Martin Odegaard whose perfectly-judged pass behind Trent Alexander-Arnold was clipped into the net by Gabriel Martinelli.

This was the sixth time in eight league games that Liverpool had conceded the first goal. The manner of the goal was more ammunition for critics of Alexander-Arnold that his attacking talents are undermined by his defensive weaknesses.

for handball. At the other end Alexander-Arnold injured his right ankle in a tangle with Martinelli.

Liverpool had to wait until the 25th minute to launch their first dangerous attack. Nunez cut in from the right and delivered a fierce shot which Ramsdale punched away. Next the goalkeeper dived to his left to deflect a back pass from William Saliba after Liverpool again escaped down the right wing.

An equaliser was coming and duly arrived in the 34th minute. Alexander-Arnold lobbed the ball forward, Diaz escaped Gabriel to cross from the right and Nunez converted on the run. This was only Nunez’s second Premier League goal since his £64m transfer from Benfica. His first had been back on the opening weekend.

Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka were being continually bypassed in midfield. But Liverpool could not build on their ascendancy and Arsenal regained the lead in first-half stoppage time. This time it was Gabriel Jesus and Martinelli who opened up Liverpool for Saka to score at close range.

Liverpool were also troubled by more injuries. In the first half Luis Diaz hurt his left knee and had to be replaced by Roberto Firmino before Alexander-Arnold injured his right ankle in a tangle with Martinelli and had to be replaced at halftime by Joe Gomez.

Arsenal began the second half aggressively but Liverpool responded by equalising. Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota set up Firmino to score his sixth goal of the campaign, one more than he managed in all of last season.

The had come against the run of play. Arsenal stormed forward and Thiago kicked Gabriel Jesus’s leg in a goalmouth scramble. Skirmishes erupted among angry players including Xhaka and even Henderson before Saka jabbed his penalty low past Allison’s right hand.

The quotes

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “It’s great, especially the way we won the game and the way we played. We deserved it. The threat Liverpool have means they can open you up and they were very efficient but we showed a lot of composure, especially the way we played in the second half.

“Everything was better. We won every duel, every second ball considering the number of players they threw at us in the last minutes. We don’t know yet how good these players can be because they are so young. All credit to Saka, especially after what happened just over a year ago.”

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, after Liverpool’s worst start in 10 years, said: “We created, we were really dangerous, we scored our goal, wonderful goal. Then we conceded in the last second of the first half.

“We wanted to carry on the good stuff but unfortunately we didn’t do that. When we equalised, it was a really open game then. The situation around the penalty? Of course we should have cleared it. I think you can imagine I don’t think it is a clear penalty. It is a very soft one.

“Couple of things went against us but we are not blind, we could have done better in certain moments.”

progressing. It gives us more confidence because we have a lot of respect for them.”

Virgil van Dijk said: “We are conceding too many goals. We can do better. We work on it every day but we are all human beings and that affects confidence. If you are not winning as regularly as we are used to, then confidence can creep away so we have to work and we have to work hard.”

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