With 24 points, the Gunners are back in front of the defending champions for a length, while Liverpool, with ten points in eight games, one less than Arsenal, already seems irremediably left behind in the title race.
But the ranking is almost the least of Jürgen Klopp’s worries at the moment, as his team has still shown defensive shortcomings which prohibit him from any ambition.
From the 58th second of play, Arsenal had sunk into their defense to allow Gabriel Martinelli to open the scoring (1-0), after a superb pass from Martin Odegaard.
It was quite simply the fastest goal in history for Arsenal in this confrontation.
The Reds far from the account
On the second goal of the Londoners, in added time of the first act, scored by Bukayo Saka, on the reception of a cross from Martinelli (2-1, 45 + 5), Trent Alexander Arnold will be singled out again for be rushed to the Brazilian, who erased him with a hook, instead of staying in the axis to block the trajectory of the center.
The right side, hit in the ankle in the 23rd minute, did not resume after the break.
The winning goal came from a penalty for a foul by Thiago Alcantara on Gabriel Jesus, converted by Saka for his double (3-2, 76th). Seconds earlier, the Gunners, in a strong moment, had forced Alisson into a double save.
Admittedly, Klopp will have had the consolation of seeing Darwin Nunez find his way to the nets to equalize at 1-1 (34th) and Roberto Firmino, who replaced Luis Diaz, injured in the 41st, also equalize at 2-2 (53rd ).
But after a capital trip to Glasgow Rangers in the Champions League on Wednesday, Manchester City will come to Anfield to challenge the Reds and Erling Haaland could have a lot of fun if the German does not find the solution very quickly.
At the start of the evening, Manchester United showed that the correction suffered in the derby against City last week (6-3) was digested, winning at Everton (2-1), with Cristiano Ronaldo’s 700th club goal , an absolute record.
This victory puts the Red Devils in 5th place in the Premier League, 9 lengths behind Arsenal, but with one game less.
Nothing will have been easy for Erik Ten Hag’s men, quickly led on a ball lost by Casimero 30 meters from his goal and which had resulted in a victorious strike from Alex Iwobi (1-0, 5th).
Grace Antony, ideally served by Frenchman Anthony Martial, for whom it was the first start of the season, had equalized with his third achievement in as many league matches (1-1, 34th).
The Casemiro-Ronaldo connection
Unfortunately, the Blue, in great shape when he is not injured, with 3 goals and 2 assists in only 4 matches, had to give way to Ronaldo just before the half hour mark.
And on an action exactly opposite to the opener – a ball recovered by Casemiro in the feet of Iwobi – the Brazilian immediately launched the Portuguese in space for a low shot that hit the mark for a goal with a strong flavor of Real Madrid and in the purest “CR7” style (1-2, 44th).
It was his 144th goal for the Red Devils, far behind the 450 recorded with Real, but ahead of 101 with Juventus and 5 with Sporting, the very first of which was scored 20 years ago and 2 days.
At the start of the afternoon, West Ham had scored a third consecutive success, in all competitions, beating Fulham (3-1) to move up to 13th place (10 pts), while Patrick Vieira’s team, Crystal Palace dominated Leeds (2-1), notably thanks to a 100% French equalizer, Michael Olise taking a free kick for the head of Odsonne Edouard, already a scorer against Chelsea last week (1-1, 24th).