LONDON – Liverpool ended Arsenal’s three-month unbeaten run with a 4-0 thrashing of the Gunners at Anfield to ease up to second in the English Premier League.
The Reds’ front three of Sadio Mane, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah were all on target before substitute Takumi Minamino set the seal on a return to form for Jurgen Klopp’s men after losing for the first time in 26 games in their last outing at West Ham.
Victory lifts the Reds to within four points of leaders Chelsea.
Klopp was at the centre of a heated argument with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta that woke Liverpool from their slumber of the opening half-hour.
Visibly riled by the Spaniard, Klopp conducted the Anfield crowd with delight once Mane opened the floodgates six minutes before halftime.
Arsenal’s 10-game unbeaten run in all competitions has hauled them to within three points of the top four.
But they had not faced a side in the top seven of the table in that sequence and suffered another lesson on how far they still have to go to compete with the Premier League’s elite after heavy defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City earlier in the campaign.
The visitors had started well until Arteta undid much of his side’s good work as the two managers became embroiled in touchline spat that lit Liverpool’s fire.
Arteta was unhappy with Mane leading with his arm as he crashed into Takehiro Tomiyasu.
There was no punishment for the Senegalese, but both coaches were booked for confronting each other.
The Reds were reenergised as Aaron Ramsdale had to continue his fine form to deny Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Arsenal was finally breached in soft fashion when Mane headed home unmarked from Alexander Arnold’s free-kick.
Liverpool then started the second period with the urgency they lacked in the opening stages as they constantly hounded Arsenal into mistakes deep inside their own half.
Nuno Taveres was the culprit for the killer second goal as his sloppy pass teed up his compatriot Jota, who coolly left Ben White and Ramsdale on the floor before tapping into an empty net.
Ramsdale earned his first England cap in the 10-0 demolition of San Marino on Monday as the Three Lions booked their place at the World Cup in Qatar.
The 23-year-old is making a strong case to dislodge Jordan Pickford as Gareth Southgate’s No 1 and kept the score respectable for Arsenal in the closing stages with another fine save from Jota.
However, he was helpless as Liverpool struck twice in four minutes at their counter-attacking best.
Jota’s flick freed Mane down the left and his cross was tapped home by Salah for his 16th goal in as many games this season.
Salah was involved again for the fourth goal as he teed up Alexander-Arnold to fire in a low cross that only required a simple tap-in from Minamino.
Elsewhere, after overseeing yet another humiliating loss as Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer walked over to the angry away fans and held both hands up in apology, before giving them a quick wave.
He may well have been waving goodbye. Even Solskjaer sounded unsure whether he’ll be given another chance to turn things around after a 4-1 loss at Watford underlined just how badly United is struggling at the moment.
“I work as hard as I can, as well as I can,” Solskjaer said when asked about his future. “But at the moment we’re not getting the results so I understand your question. But as I said, I’m not going to discuss that with you here and now.”
Saturday’s result was bad enough but the performance was so lackluster – even before two late goals padded the scoreline for Watford – that it left Solskjaer’s future in in serious doubt, with United dropping to seventh place in the standings.
“It was an embarrassing first half,” United goalkeeper David De Gea said. “It was hard to watch the team playing like today. I think it’s a nightmare.”
Solskjaer has been able to ride out previous stretches of underperformance, in part because of his popularity with fans as a former striker who took on legendary status because of his ability to come off the bench to score crucial winners. But even the United fans seemed to turn against him when he came over to applaud them after the game.
“We´re embarrassed by losing the way we do,” Solskjaer said about his gesture of apology toward the fans. “Sometimes you´ve got to say sorry. And that was a `sorry for the performance.´”
Unlike United, Chelsea showed again that it’s a genuine title contender this season by consolidating its lead atop the standings with a 3-0 win at Leicester.
Liverpool climbed provisionally into second place after dismantling Arsenal 4-0 at Anfield.
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard started his reign as Aston Villa manager with a 2-0 win over Brighton, while his predecessor Dean Smith saw his new team Norwich climb out of last place with a 2-1 home win against Southampton.
For United, it was a fifth loss in its last seven Premier League games – the previous two coming to biggest rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.
This one could have been even worse, but Ismaila Sarr missed two chances to convert an early penalty – both of them saved by De Gea – after the first was retaken because of encroachment.
Joshua King still put Watford ahead in the 28th and Sarr made amends by netting the second just before the halftime break for Claudio Ranieri’s team.
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