Liverpool close gap at top as Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino sink Arsenal

Before this match, Mikel Arteta had warned that the gap between Arsenal and the league’s title chasers remained far greater than he’d like. Halfway through it was tempting to belittle those concerns but, by the end, his point had been reinforced emphatically. Liverpool can now smell a return to domestic supremacy and it is because they took their chances, laying bare the difference in firepower to ensure proceedings were effectively settled just after the hour. It was a brutal lesson in efficiency and one that would not have looked especially likely to the uninitiated: nights like this could easily come to define a season that may now go down to the wire.

Jürgen Klopp, an agitated figure for the opening 45 minutes as Arsenal’s tempo smothered his team, could depart in the knowledge Liverpool are a mere point behind Manchester City, who they face at the Etihad in three and a half weeks. It might not have been that way if Martin Ødegaard had scored early in the second half, as he should have, but the immediacy and certainty of the punishment Liverpool meted out was certainly that of potential champions.

The complexion would have looked different if, after Alexandre Lacazette seized onto Thiago Alcântara’s undercooked backpass and teed him up, Ødegaard had been able to take advantage. Lacazette had reached the ball ahead of Alisson but the goalkeeper was given time to recover and deflected the Norwegian’s shot over. It was a good save from an imposing figure, but also a bad miss from a delightful footballer whose reliability in front of goal often appears his only weak point.

That was in the 51st minute and, with the next significant action, Thiago found his bearings in devastating fashion. The slide-rule pass that sent Diogo Jota away through the inside left was beautifully weighted, but Arsenal’s defence had left a mystifying amount of space. Jota drilled inside Aaron Ramsdale’s near post, a state of affairs the home No 1 will not be happy with, and with that it was clear Arsenal’s moment had been and gone.

A minute later, and Jota would not have been there to score it. He had deputised for Mohamed Salah, who started on the bench as a precaution after picking up a minor foot injury at Brighton, but had done little to suggest his involvement should be prolonged. But he was afforded just enough time to put Arsenal to the sword, as he had in scoring twice here in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, as Salah stood by the touchline ready to take his place. The substitution was made anyway: “We didn’t take him off because he scored,” Klopp joked.

At the same time, Roberto Firmino replaced the quiet Luis Díaz. Soon enough he led an attack that brought Andy Robertson to charge down Bukayo Saka’s clearance. Firmino had made a typically canny run in from the right and, when Robertson offered a composed centre towards the near post, he darted in front of Ramsdale and flicked home smartly.

The game was won, although Gabriel Martinelli came close to making things more interesting late on. Martinelli had characterised Arsenal’s energy and application throughout the game, tearing up and down the left flank during the opening period and just failing to pick out a man at the end of a mesmerising run before Ødegaard’s aberration. It was a reminder that, if Arsenal do reach the Champions League, they have players who will look perfectly at home there.

They had wobbled early on when Ramsdale made a plunging low save from Virgil van Dijk’s free header but otherwise, spurred on by an excitable crowd on a rainswept night, showed no inclination to treat this as a free hit. They had outplayed Manchester City on New Year’s Day without reward; Arteta felt something similar had occurred here, between the boxes at least, and his players are certainly mustering a consistency of performance that makes it feel likely they will last the course.

Thomas Partey outshone Fabinho in midfield for much of the night while Saka, until flagging in the second half, kept finding inviting spaces on the right. But they could not muster the clear opportunity that would change things until Ødegaard came face to face with Alisson. “When you have the chances you have to get something out of it,” Arteta said. Liverpool did exactly that, once again, and have the momentum in their favour as the season enters its last stretch.