Richard Jolly: Mikel Arteta’s plan B must become his plan A if Arsenal are to win the Premier League

Richard Jolly: Mikel Arteta’s plan B must become his plan A if Arsenal are to win the Premier League

By starting Mikel Merino, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta indicated that physicality rather than flair was his focus at Anfield. Photo: Getty

It must have been galling for a manager with a love of supersized full-backs. Mikel Arteta was beaten by one who isn’t really a full-back at all. Dominik Szoboszlai would be more likely to play centre-forward than right-back in an Arteta team; if the Spaniard is short of full-backs, his innate preference is to use a centre-back on the flanks instead.

For Arne Slot, however, a midfielder was an emergency full-back. Set-piece FC were condemned to defeat by a wonderful set-piece, Szoboszlai’s free-kick leaving David Raya shrugging as he picked himself up