England: Arsenal, the new leader, pulls off the perfect win in Liverpool

Arsenal took control of the Premier League on Sunday after a fiercely intense battle against Liverpool (1-0) at Anfield, where the Gunners had not won in the league for fourteen years.

The English champions opened the scoring early through their centre-forward Kai Havertz (16th, 0-1) and they then resisted the multiple offensive assaults of the Reds, who were unstoppable but imprecise.

The London club had not won in Liverpool since September 2012 in the Premier League, at a time when Arsène Wenger was the coach and Mikel Arteta (the current manager) was the captain.

Arsenal (24 pts) snatched first place from Manchester City (2nd, 21 pts), who were beaten 1-0 on Saturday by Brighton (3rd, 19 pts). Liverpool (5th, 15 pts) dropped behind Chelsea (4th, 16 pts), who defeated Manchester United (2-0 on Saturday).

At Anfield, the Gunners' defence was shaken like rarely before by an unleashed Liverpool team, with crazy intensity at times, and which probably delivered its best game under Andoni Iraola.

The new coach will be able to criticize his players for that poorly executed six-meter penalty at the start of the game, which the opponent pounced on with relish, and which they made profitable via a cross from Declan Rice met at the far post by Havertz.

The centre-forward has become, in the process, the only German top scorer in Premier League history (46 goals), ahead of Ilkay Gündogan.

Liverpool then put on enormous pressure continuously, but without finding their range, whether it was on a Florian Wirtz free kick pushed back by the bar (39th) or a header from Alexis Mac Allister, over (43rd).

The home side also claimed several penalties, in vain, notably after an obvious shirt pull by Jurriën Timber on Alexander Isak, who was too short to meet a cross from Bradley Barcola (20th).