Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal: result and report

The Pundit picked Arsenal (46%): correct

Report

Arsenal won 1-0 away at Liverpool. The result was theirs, but the game was more even than the scoreline suggests. Liverpool generated more of the chance quality and still went home with nothing.

The only goal came on 16 minutes. Declan Rice set up Kai Havertz, and despite spending much of the remaining time without the ball, Arsenal never gave that lead back.

The numbers tell a split story. Liverpool finished with 1.71 xG to Arsenal's 0.81 and had more shots, eight to five. Yet none of those eight shots hit the target. That meant David Raya did not have to make a single save, while Arsenal's three efforts on target brought a goal and two saves from the other end.

Liverpool also had the territory. They had 56% of the ball, 72 dangerous attacks to Arsenal's 51 and a far higher sustained pressure level across the match. They hit the woodwork once as well. Even so, territory and near misses are not the same as making the goalkeeper work, and Liverpool never managed that.

There is one point in Arsenal's favour beyond the goal. They created two big chances to Liverpool's one, so their smaller share of the game still produced the sharper openings. Each side missed one of those big chances, which is why one moment of quality ended up separating them.

That makes Liverpool's attacking afternoon harder to explain. They started Alexander Isak, who had six goals going into the game, alongside Florian Wirtz, Cody Gakpo and Bradley Barcola. Despite that line-up, the shots kept missing the target, though the xG suggests the positions were often good enough.