Liverpool won a landslide 5-1 win over Arsenal in the Premier League match on week 20 at Anfield Stadium on Sunday (30/12) early morning hours. Liverpool won the victory thanks to two penalty goals, from Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino. In addition to the penalty goal, Firmino also scored two more goals. While the other Reds goals were scored by Sadio Mane, who buried Arsenal’s lead through Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s goal.
Liverpool started the match with a situation that was not convincing enough, by misses some passes in their own area by Fabinho who was captured by Alex Iwobi, luckily goalkeeper Alisson Becker was quite swift to stop the Arsenal wing kick.
Arsenal could have excelled first in the 11th minute through right-back goal Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Alex Iwobi’s cross from the left side can be used well by Maitland-Niles with a cheek.
Only, Liverpool does not need a long time to equalize. Three minutes after Arsenal goal, the Reds turned the score to 1-1 after Roberto Firmino broke into Bernd Leno’s goal.
Two minutes later Liverpool turned superior. Firmino scored his second goal to bring Liverpool 2-1 ahead after deceiving Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis.
Not wanting to lose to Firmino, Sadio Mane participated in registering his name on the scoreboard in the 32nd minute. Sane changed the score to 3-1 after utilizing assist Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool closed the first half with a score of 4-1 after Mohamed Salah scored from a penalty in the 45th minute + 2.
Superior 4-1 did not make Liverpool postpone the attack in the second round. It’s just that, the intensity of the Reds’ pressure in the second half declined slightly. Even so Liverpool still able to master the game.
The second penalty for Liverpool in the 63rd minute after Sead Kolasinac was considered to violate Dejan Lovren from behind. As the executor, Roberto Firmino did his job well in the 65th minute while scoring a hat trick in the match. Placing Firmino’s ball to the left post made Bernd Leno fooled by jumping right.
Arsenal replaced the player in the 71st minute, Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang was replaced by Alexandre Lacazette, but that didn’t help much. Lacazette fired in the 80th minute but hit the Reds defender.
This victory established Liverpool’s position at the top of the standings with a collection of 54 points, while Arsenal (38 points) held in fifth. The Reds are now nine points ahead of their closest competitor, Tottenham Hotspur (45), who swallowed a humiliating defeat against Wolverhamtpon (29) in the match earlier.
Composition of players
Liverpool: Alisson Becker; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dejan Lovren, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson; Georginio Wijnaldum, Fabinho; Xherdan Shaqiri, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane; Mohamed Salah.
Arsenal: Bernd Leno; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Sead Kolasinac; Aaron Ramsey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Iwobi.