Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal ended 14 years of Anfield misery on Sunday, and Mikel Arteta‘s explanation for why it took so long was surprisingly blunt: part of the problem was in his players’ heads.
Kai Havertz’s 16th-minute tap-in settled it, four days after Arsenal were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by League Two Fleetwood Town. It sends them three points clear of Manchester City at the top, with Liverpool fifth and nine points back.
It wasn’t pretty. Liverpool had 56% of the ball and 17 shots, yet for the first time in Opta’s records, which go back 442 league games at Anfield to 2003-04, they failed to land a single shot on target in a home Premier League match.
What did Arteta mean by ‘psychological problems’?
He meant that Anfield had been beating Arsenal before the football did. The Arsenal boss said his players were “just loving the mission”, then listed why that mission had failed for so long.
Arteta said: “The mission was something that we didn’t accomplish in 14 years. There were reasons for that. Some of them were psychological problems. Some of them were related to the quality that we showed on the pitch, certain moments or decisions. And we knew that we need to nail absolutely all of them.”
| The Anfield wait | The numbers |
|---|---|
| Last Premier League win at Anfield | September 2012 |
| Winless league visits before Sunday | 13 (five draws, eight defeats) |
| Of those, under Arteta | Six (three draws, three defeats) |
| Trips without a win in all competitions | 16 |
| Last league clean sheet at Anfield | That same 2012 win, until Sunday |
Those numbers explain the wording. Arteta told Sky Sports about the old pattern: “We have had previous like that in the past and hadn’t sustained it. We made a penalty or misread in the box or sometimes they have a magical moment and put the ball in the net and you don’t manage to win the game.” This time, Liverpool’s best spell came straight after the goal, with 28 touches in the Arsenal box in the first half, the most by any side against Arsenal in an opening 45 minutes since 2008-09. Arsenal took all of it and didn’t crack.
Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal: the goal Arteta says they had talked about
Alisson’s loose pass out from the back started it. Martin Odegaard was on to it, Bruno Guimaraes worked the ball right to Noni Madueke, and Declan Rice was already steaming past him on the overlap. The low cross was perfect and Havertz only had to turn it in at the far post.
That looks like a gift from a goalkeeper, and partly it was. But the finish to the move was no accident. Arteta said: “The movement to recognise the open situation to make the overlap, the timing of him playing the two vs one in the right manner and arriving from the far side constantly in the right space is something we discussed.”
Rice collected the player of the match award from the broadcasters, and Jamie Carragher went further on Sky Sports’ Super Sunday: “He’s the best midfield player in the Premier League by a long way. It’s not even a debate.” That won’t hurt, with the new Rice contract Arteta says is only a matter of time still to be signed. Rice was also one of the players who had to prove his fitness in training just to make this trip.
We would have started Gyokeres. Arteta knew better
Credit where it’s due. Before this game we made the case for Viktor Gyokeres over Havertz, because Havertz had gone 561 minutes in all competitions without a goal and Gyokeres had just scored at Fleetwood. Arteta picked Havertz anyway, after a poor night for him in that cup tie, and got his reward inside 16 minutes.
The goal was Havertz’s 46th in the Premier League, which takes him past Ilkay Gundogan as the competition’s top German scorer. It was his third of this league season and his first away from home. Gyokeres came on for him with six minutes left, and the debate won’t go away after one tap-in. For this game, though, the manager was right and we weren’t.
Why was Eze on the bench?
Because he wasn’t fit, and only after the game did we learn how close he was to missing out altogether. Eberechi Eze’s absence from the XI was the surprise of the team sheet, with Christos Tzolis starting instead in his first match for a month.
Arteta explained: “It’s the energy that he had in training. When I asked him the question, how convinced he was. We had an issue with Ebs as well, it was incredible that he was in the squad today.” He gave no more detail, and it isn’t yet clear whether Eze is a doubt for Wednesday’s trip to Slavia Prague.
So Arsenal, without Bukayo Saka (quad) and William Saliba (back), went to Anfield with Tzolis barely back, Rice and Riccardo Calafiori only just recovered, and Madueke an ankle doubt on the right wing until the final session. The left and right flanks both held up. Tzolis kept running at Ronald Araujo, forced a sharp save from Alisson and lasted 84 minutes.
Arteta handed the credit to the medical and performance staff: “These are the margins sometimes when you win a football match, whether you have somebody available or not.” On Tzolis, he added: “He didn’t want to come off, he wanted to complete the game. We took some risks, but at a point we decided enough was enough.”
Is Konsa more than Saliba’s stand-in now?
On this evidence, he has at least made it a conversation. Ezri Konsa won all seven of his ground duels and made eight clearances and 15 defensive contributions in all, next to Gabriel, in the kind of game where a centre-back can’t hide.
Saliba could be back soon after the November international break, and we’d still expect him to walk back in when fit. But he hasn’t played this season, and Arsenal’s 24 points from nine league games are the most by any team at this stage since their own 24 in 2022-23. Konsa has earned the right to make that decision a hard one.
Did Arsenal get lucky at Anfield?
Yes, and Arteta admitted as much: “Today we had all of that, we had an element of luck as well and we had the quality in the right moments as well to hurt them.”
Liverpool had four penalty appeals turned down in the first half, and Jurrien Timber’s pull on Alexander Isak’s shirt is the one Gooners should be grateful for. Asked about it, Arteta replied: “No, I haven’t seen that.” Florian Wirtz also hit the crossbar with a free-kick, and Alexis Mac Allister headed over when he was completely unmarked just before the break.
Then came the 79th-minute flashpoint, when Madueke, already booked, leaned his head into Mac Allister as the two squared up. VAR checked it and cleared him.
#LIVARS – 79’
– Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) November 1, 2026
The referee’s call of no violent conduct by Madueke on Mac Allister was checked and confirmed by VAR.
VAR: “All of the situations have been checked and cleared. There is some contact as Madueke and Mac Allister square-up. In my opinion, it's not forceful, not…
Verdict: Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal is the ugly win a champion needs
Let’s not pretend this was a great performance. Arsenal gave the ball away cheaply for long spells, overhit and underhit too many passes on the break, and invited pressure they didn’t need to. On another day a draw is the fair result, and a better Liverpool finish makes it worse than that.
That’s exactly why we love it. Any side chasing a title needs a handful of these across 38 games, the days when you don’t play well and still leave with the three points. Offer any Gooner 1-0 at Anfield before kick-off, with no questions about how, and they’d have bitten your hand off. The performance needs picking apart this week, and the result needs no defence at all.
Arteta won’t talk about the title, saying only that “it is too early” and that Prague is next. Max Dowman is available again for that one, then Hull City come to the Emirates on Saturday. But the place that has given this club so many bad afternoons is no longer a psychological problem. That may be worth more than the three points.
