It’s a mark of how good Liverpool has been in recent months that, after a relatively comfortable 3–1 victory, the thought was less of how well it had played than of how well Arsenal had done to live with it for so long. But this was a third successive win for Liverpool this season, one in which for a long period it looked streets ahead of any other side in the Premier League.
For much of the first half, Liverpool, perhaps benefitting from having had no European football in August, played with tremendous verve and a purpose. This was the relentless side of a year ago rather than the slightly careless side that had let in three goals in each of its previous two home league games.