Everything you think about Liverpool and Arsenal is correct; their League Cup semi-final proved it - The Warm-Up

FRIDAY'S BIG STORIES Good Old Carabao Just Like Mother Used To Make Ad/> Sometimes it's nice to watch a football match and learn things. And sometimes, it's nice to sit back and watch a game, and be reassured that everything you knew, that you thought you knew, was correct. So went Liverpool's win over Arsenal, which confirmed that Arsenal pick up some monumentally daft red cards, Arsenal need a striker, Diogo Jota is very good, and Trent Alexander-Arnold is absolutely sensational.

League Cup'Jota on fire' — Klopp praises forward after his goals send Liverpool to Carabao Cup final9 HOURS AGO And you knew all that already! Aren't you clever? Let's go in reverse order. It seems pretty clear by this point that Alexander-Arnold is the best crosser of the ball the Premier League has had since David Beckham. Mere mortals stick their crosses into the corridor of uncertainty and hope for the best.

Alexander-Arnold, a fancy architect, creates vast oak-panelled hallways of panic draped with velvet curtains of dread, that end in sweeping marble staircases of mortal terror. Also that often end in goals. And Liverpool's second goal was, in the delivery, pure unadulterated Beckham.

The trajectory, the fade, the deceptive pace of the thing; the way the ball first sucked the defenders in and then made them look very silly. It's a bit played out to bring up England at this point, so we beg your indulgence. In part, that's because we all know why Gareth Southgate doesn't pick him: England's manager has a system, and that system doesn't need its full-backs to do what Alexander-Arnold does.