Liverpool are first in the Premier League title race for the 2023/24 season and have dumped Arsenal out of the FA Cup in what Jürgen Klopp described as a special win.
The German lost a few important players to health and fitness issues just before they lined up to take on the Gunners at the Emirates. However, they rallied to a 2 – 0 win with both goals coming late in the game.
Mikel Arteta was left to rue his side’s missed chances and made to face the ire of Arsenal fans, who have become increasingly impatient with him. Klopp, however, was ecstatic about the win and called it a special one because of the circumstances surrounding it.
“Wataru Endo was not here tonight, Dom Szoboszlai was not here tonight, Andy Robertson was not here tonight, Kostas Tsimikas was not here tonight, Thiago Alcantara was not here tonight, Stefan Bajcetic was not here tonight, Joel Matip was not here tonight,” Klopp said.
“So, that’s a really good football team we missed. And if I forgot somebody, sorry!
“Football is like that. Sometimes you have them all available, it’s pretty rare, and sometimes you don’t have them available. I’m super-happy.
“That’s why I said, first half you could see it didn’t click. It was not because of new players or whatever, it was just the timing was bad and that doesn’t help. Pressing rhythm and timing are extremely important – and we didn’t have either.
“I said to the boys in the meeting before the game: humans are like that. It’s a tough game, nobody comes to Arsenal and wins just like this [clicks fingers], so in this game there will be difficult moments [and] if we start in these moments – which humans very often do – [looking] for excuses and then we realise who else is not here, it’s normal that we have these problems, then we are screwed.
“But if you know these kinds of things you can avoid it – and that’s what we did. The boys enjoyed the game, at least in the second half. That’s really cool. Staying in a game that looked in the first half like that, then growing into a game, is a pretty special thing to do. Especially an away game. So I’m really happy, with both halves then because we can learn from both.”
Asked if the game is an indication of the direction of the Premier League title race, Klopp answered: “No. I can’t. It doesn’t mean nobody can, but I can’t.
“If we draw now Man City away, for example, next round of the FA Cup, then we play Bournemouth, next FA Cup [game], Chelsea and then Arsenal again here. It’s really tough. I can’t read anything there.
“I know this league is crazy-difficult but you have to find solutions. I said it plenty of times: there are a thousand ways to win a game, we just have to find one. That unfortunately sounds much easier than it is, but for tonight it worked. So that’s good.”
