General view inside the stadium ahead during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD4 match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid CF at Anfield on November 04, 2025 in Liverpool, England.
General view inside the stadium ahead during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD4 match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid CF at Anfield on November 04, 2025 in Liverpool, England.
Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool endured a painful afternoon at Anfield on Sunday, as Arsenal left Merseyside with all three points and a place at the top of the Premier League after a single goal from Kai Havertz settled a tense contest that the hosts will feel they did enough to take something from.
Declan Rice drove into the box and cut the ball back for Havertz to finish at the back post in the first half, and although Liverpool pushed hard for a response, Florian Wirtz saw a free kick come back off the crossbar and Alexander Isak was left furious when Jurrien Timber appeared to hold him inside the area without a penalty being given.
The most damning detail was that Liverpool failed to register a single shot on target at home for the first time on record, a result that leaves them nine points behind Mikel Arteta’s side and hands Arsenal their first win at Anfield since 2012.
That story of plenty of the ball and very little end product played out on the same day in East London, where Gareth Taylor’s Liverpool Women travelled to the Chigwell Construction Stadium hoping to build some momentum in the Barclays Women’s Super League, only for their afternoon to unravel almost as soon as it began.
Only six minutes had passed when Fuka Nagano was judged to have tripped Viviane Asseyi inside the box, and the French forward sent the penalty into the right corner while Khiara Keating dived the other way, before Leila Wandeler doubled the lead on the quarter of an hour after exchanging passes with Seraina Piubel and guiding a low finish home.
Asseyi then smashed an effort against the crossbar around the half hour, and although Alice Bergstrom twice whipped in dangerous crosses that narrowly evaded Cornelia Kapocs at the back post, fortune deserted the Reds on 44 minutes when Laia Codina’s strike from 25 yards deflected off Jenna Clark and looped beyond Keating.
Taylor introduced Vivien Endemann for Natalia Ramos at the break and changed the shape, but Asseyi was in no mood to let the contest drift, curling a free kick into the roof of the net just past the hour to complete her double and put West Ham four goals clear.
To their credit, the visitors kept battling and had the better of the closing stages, and Endemann earned a consolation when she dribbled in from the right and benefited from a deflection, leaving the final score at 4 to 1, as Chris Shaw reported on the club’s official website.
It was a miserable Sunday for both Liverpool sides, and the women will not have to wait long to face the team that beat the men, with Arsenal visiting Anfield next Sunday, 8 November, for a 12pm GMT kick off that will demand a far sharper performance.
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