Premier League Talking Points: Slot's jackpot moves, Arsenal's frustrating handbrake

TALKING POINTS: Arne Slot's Liverpool have nine points from three games and yet to get close to their best.

Decisive in August?

Notwithstanding Jamie Carragher’s hyperbolic reaction to Liverpool’s success at Anfield, it’s difficult to read anything of ‘huge’ significance into a Premier League win in August, irrespective of the protagonists.

Arsenal will be frustrated leaving Merseyside and so they should be. A scoreless draw wouldn’t have been the world’s end for either, but even then Liverpool would have been the happier. What is more beguiling from Arne Slot’s standpoint is that the defending Premier League champions have made it nine points from three games without getting close to their dastardly best. 

The manager might also reflect on the encouraging defensive display at Anfield after relying heavily on Virgil van Dijk’s poise and leadership to get them through sticky games against Bournemouth and Newcastle. Though Crystal Palace have turned down another Liverpool bid for their defender Marc Guehi, it won’t be a galloping surprise if the England defender is winging his way north before Monday’s 5pm deadline. He might even meet Alexander Isak travelling in the other direction. Arne’s army have reasons aplenty to be smiling heading into September.

The Slot machine

ANFIELD Arne appears to have that happy knack of hitting the jackpot every time he is pulling the lever on the casino slot machine. Against the unsavoury backdrop to the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold and the injuries to Conor Bradley and the Dutch flyer, Jeremie Frimpong, slotting (apols, again) midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai into the right side of his Liverpool defence felt like a gamble destined for disaster but again Slot’s strawberries/lemons/oranges came up trumps, with a man of the match performance from the Hungarian embellished by an outrageous winning goal from over 30 yards. 

Both Szoboszlai and his compatriot Milos Kerkez are in Dublin next weekend for the opening round of World Cup qualifiers, though the former Bournemouth left back may still be a little bit awed by his august new surroundings.

Carpe diem and Arsenal.

So Arsenal’s 858-day unbeaten streak against the Premier League’s so-called big six is done. That stretched to 22 games against the likes of Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Chelsea, featuring 13 wins and nine draws. Whether some of those clubs are genuinely ‘big six’ in more than name is a discussion for another day. Mikel Arteta spoke after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat about Liverpool and his own side elevating the contest to an elite level, and for the first hour the visitors were composed and unruffled – without threatening.

The margins here are small and Arsenal invested heavily in the summer to add that extra pinch of gold dust. Martin Zubimendi failed to impose himself, and Victor Gyokeres was scratching around for a living up top. Liverpool were off it. Their three best players were defenders in Szoboszlai, Konate and van Dijk. The three points and the huge psychological lift resulting from it were there for Mikel Arteta’s side. 

We’ve seen this movie over the past three seasons, when the moment demands boldness, risk, ambition and that ‘elite’ cutting edge, Arsenal couldn’t provide it. Noni Madueke galloped at Liverpool’s left back Milos Kerkez with relish but he was exceptional in doing so among Arsenal’s players. It underlines again how reliant the Londoners are on Bukayo Saka for magic moments (as Arteta calls them), even if Ebere Eze looked menacing when introduced. 

Another stat is worth reflecting on too: Arsenal’s away record at the ‘big two’, Liverpool and Manchester City, under Mikel Arteta in all competitions is P15 W 0 D7 L8. They’ve scored nine goals and conceded 29.