Five Anfield takeaways: Pool now formidable but functional Arsenal shut them out

Now their manager Mikel Arteta was in the last Arsenal side to beat Liverpool in the Premier League at Anfield when, under Arsene Wenger’s stewardship, goals from Lukas Podolski and Santi Carzorla propelled them to a comfortable victory. The team Arteta has constructed is not as easy on the eye as many of those overseen by Wenger.

But it is superbly functional, particularly in the final third, where they prevented the hosts from recording a single shot on target despite enjoying the lion’s share of possession and returning a higher XG figure. It is exactly that robustness, combined with their efficiency in attack as demonstrated by Kai Havertz’s clinical first-half finish, which saw them end the latest round of fixtures three points clear at the summit of the table.