Arsenal’s dark arts almost worked at Liverpool - until they very much didn't
**_Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal_** _(Szoboszlai 83’)_
ANFIELD — It almost worked. Arsenal had reduced Liverpool, scorers of nine goals in their first three games of the season with two attacking additions costing nearly £200m, to barely a chance.
Missing three of their best players through injury, away from home against the Premier League champions, they were six minutes away from a point or possibly more.
And then Dominik Szoboszlai struck one of the great free-kicks, the ball rising over the wall then dipping viciously, in off the post, from 32 yards, destined to be replayed in clips for decades to come.
You simply don’t stop Liverpool scoring. Almost literally, these days – Szoboszlai’s free-kick was a club record 37th consecutive Premier League game they have scored in.
But how close Arsenal came. And they did so after losing William Saliba, a key centre-back, after only five minutes to a worrying injury, replaced by Cristhian Mosquera. The summer signing had a promising pre-season, but that is nothing compared to stepping onto the Anfield pitch to face Mohamed Salah.
For 83 minutes, Arsenal had squeezed every possible second out of the game they could.
Take corners, for example. Declan Rice strolled across for all eight of Arsenal’s, taking his time.
The Anfield crowd, agitated by a surprising lack of entertainment from their own players, finally grew fed up with the approach in the 63rd minute, when Rice stopped enroute and turned to have a quick chat with Gabriel Martinelli.
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Rice turned back, resumed his slow amble to the corner flag, let another few seconds melt away as he readied the ball, then made sure his short run-up was just right.
In fact, Rice never broke into even a jog for any of them, despite spending the remainder of his time on the pitch tearing from box to box like a wild dog.
This is by far an exact science, but say Rice took about 30 seconds before taking each corner – that’s four minutes. A big wedge of time that you don’t want Liverpool, possessing one of the most frightening attacks in the game right now, to have.
Arsenal’s entire performance was laced with letting time drain out the clock.
In first-half stoppage time, the game goalless but Arsenal edging it, Arsenal had a break on, Noni Madueke on the ball just inside his own half.
Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, wasn’t far away from the player, and yelled at him to calm the game down, gesturing with his hands, palms facing down.
Madueke, who had already shown what he could do if he let loose when he struck terror into Liverpool’s new left-back Milos Kerkez with driving runs all half, carried the ball a little way, slowly. Over the far side of the pitch, Riccardo Calafiori hared forwards to offer a diagonal ball and a possible route in behind Liverpool’s defence.
Madueke watched his teammate, almost admiringly, then passed the ball back simply, and Arsenal retained possession to see the half out.
Liverpool finished the first 45 minutes with only two shots, none on target – an xG of 0.09. It was the first time they failed to hit the target in the first half of a Premier League in two years. And the fewest shots they attempted in a first half in almost three – since a game against Manchester City in October 2021.
It can be quite hard, mind, when your opponent is disrupting rhythm at every opportunity, flattening intensity, taking any sting out of the game you try to inject in it.
This season, referees are attempting to crack down on goalkeepers time-wasting with the ball in their hands by strictly enforcing the eight-second rule.
At one point in the second half, referee Chris Kavanagh held up his hand to warn David Raya he had five seconds remaining. The fingers went down: five, four, three, two, one.
When the time elapsed, Raya eked a few more seconds by dropping the ball to his feet, then launching it up field when he was pressured.
And there was the time Hugo Ekitike was advancing towards Raya, chasing a lost ball, and the Arsenal goalkeeper let it roll towards him an extra couple of yards. Vanishing another few seconds.
You can call it time wasting, or game management, or dark arts, or not what football is all about.
Whatever you call it, Arsenal are so good at it now you barely notice.
They may have lost a big game, to a brutal free-kick. It may not have worked this time. But there is plenty of evidence Arsenal will be right in the mix for the title yet again.