Bukayo Saka double sends Arsenal top after win over Liverpool in fiery clash

It is time to believe the hype. There was a sense Arsenal needed to take the scalp of an age-old nemesis to fully assert their credentials and they answered every question here. This was a see-sawing, fully engaging encounter but Mikel Arteta’s players were ultimately better in every department, performing with clarity and a rattling intensity against a Liverpool team more reliant on flashes and moments.

They had not scored in six games against these opponents but corrected that within a minute through the exceptional Gabriel Martinelli, who laid on the second for Bukayo Saka and then watched his teammate win the match with a penalty. Although Darwin Núñez and Roberto Firmino scored equalisers, a third would have flattered the visitors.

Jürgen Klopp has never been shy to express his admiration for Martinelli, such a dazzling and high-octane talent who plays with a relentlessness worthy of the German’s best teams, but must have been cursing him within 57 seconds. It is easy to observe that, week after week, Arsenal start games at a breathtaking tempo; nullifying it is more difficult, especially when an opponent offers the space Liverpool allowed in those early stages.

Nonetheless it was a sublimely executed goal of the type that has become so familiar here. A Liverpool attack failed to stick and immediately the ball was spirited to the right where Saka, in exactly the situation that suits him best, ate up the ground in front. A sideways pass to Martin Ødegaard and then, from the captain, a cutely-slipped ball between Joel Matip and Trent Alexander-Arnold: it was a classic Arteta-era combination but still needed finishing, which Martinelli did with aplomb on the run.

An entire game would be a long time to hold a lead. But