Jurgen Klopp heaps praise on Arsenal as mind games begin ahead of blockbuster clash

Jurgen Klopp lauded Arsenal and ripped into his own side ahead of Liverpool’s blockbuster trip to the Emirates next Sunday.

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Liverpool travel to north London a week tomorrow on October 9 as they look to recover from a dismal start to the season against Mikel Arteta’s league leaders.

Klopp’s side have won just two of their opening seven games and have fallen down to ninth in the table as the pressure continues to mount on the German.

It is a complete contrast to Arsenal, who sit top of the Premier League table after a superb start to the 2022-23 campaign, winning seven of their first eight games.

The Gunners ended Tottenham’s unbeaten start to the season on Saturday with an impressive 3-1 victory and Klopp has been impressed by Arteta’s team so far.

‘I know then Arsenal is coming and we saw glimpses of their game against Tottenham,’ he said after his side were held to a 3-3 home draw by Brighton.

‘They are outstanding in the moment so that is obviously not an easy game. But we will give it a proper try.’

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>ð² Just 2 wins from 7 PL games ð 9th in the PL table ð¢ 11 points adrift of league leaders Arsenal This season hasn’t gone quite to plan for Klopp and Liverpool so far ð pic.twitter.com/b3EmRhv9DD

Quizzed on his own side’s failures, Klopp admitted Liverpool ‘have to do better’ going forward, described current confidence as a ‘little flower’ which has been stomped on and hinted that his team are not listening to him.

‘I spoke to the boys in a similar way to how I speak to you,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how many times I have to say we need a reaction.

‘The first goal has an impact on both teams. They were flying and we were somewhere in between. They used that