Havertz Ends Arsenal's 14-Year Anfield Wait as Gunners Go Top

LIVERPOOL, England — Sixteen minutes into the loudest away day in English football, Alisson Becker rolled a pass out of his own area and straight into trouble. Martin Ødegaard cut it out, Arsenal swept the ball right, Declan Rice overlapped and drilled a low cross through the six-yard box, and Kai Havertz arrived at the far post to tap in the only goal of the game. With that one touch, a 14-year wait ended: Arsenal had not won a league game at Anfield since September 2012, when their manager, Mikel Arteta, was playing in their midfield.

Reuters reported that the win takes the champions to 24 points from nine games and three points clear of Manchester City, who lost at home to Brighton on Saturday. Liverpool's second league defeat of the season leaves them fifth, nine points behind the leaders — and it was the manner of this one that will sting: for all their pressure, Andoni Iraola's side never once forced David Raya into a save from a shot on target.

The goal itself carried a record. According to Opta, it was Havertz's 46th in the Premier League, moving him past İlkay Gündogan's 45 to become the most prolific German goalscorer in the competition's history. Arsenal FC's own report noted the same milestone: the striker who replaced Viktor Gyökeres in the starting lineup picked the biggest away ground in the country to set it.

What followed the goal was a siege. Opta's records show Liverpool had 28 touches inside Arsenal's penalty area in the first half alone — the most by any team in an opening half against Arsenal since such records began in 2008-09. Florian Wirtz bent a free-kick over Raya and off the crossbar on 39 minutes. Moments later, Milos Kerkez picked out Alexis Mac Allister arriving unmarked, and he headed over with the goal at his mercy. Liverpool also had four first-half penalty appeals turned down, the loudest of them for Jurriën Timber's tug on Alexander Isak's shirt, which the Press Association noted escaped the eagle eye of VAR. Isak's pressure even forced a lucky bounce off Ezri Konsa that rescued Raya. And still, somehow, the half ended with the hosts having nothing to show for any of it.

The second half slowed into the shape Arteta wanted: Arsenal in a rigid block, Liverpool's tempo dropping, the Kop growing quieter. Isak sliced wide of the near post, and then it was Arsenal who went closer to the game's second goal — Christos Tzolis, back from injury, saw a cutback cleared by Jérémy Jacquet with Ødegaard waiting to sweep it in, and later drew a brilliant one-handed save from Alisson with a first-time strike toward the far corner. Liverpool threw men forward late and never truly tested Raya. The team that arrived having shaken off a midweek Carabao Cup exit to Fleetwood left with the statement win of the season so far.

What the Previously Stats Hub adds

Our own numbers had the shape of this before a ball was kicked. Arsenal's Stats Hub page had the champions at seven wins and one defeat from eight games before kickoff; Liverpool's page had the hosts on 15 points. And Havertz's hub page had him on two league goals from six appearances this season — Sunday's winner was his third, on the ground where goals from him matter most. The hub's results column carries the weekend's neatest receipt, too: the only team to beat Arsenal in the league this season is Brighton, back in September. On Saturday, Brighton went and beat Manchester City 1-0 as well — Yasin Ayari's early goal opened the door, and Arsenal walked through it at Anfield. Every stat from this one is in the Game Center.

Fourteen years in the making

The last Arsenal side to win a league game here, on September 2, 2012, was Arsène Wenger's: Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla scored in a 2-0 win, with Arteta anchoring the midfield. Since then, per Opta, the Gunners had made 13 league trips to Anfield without a win — five draws, eight defeats, their joint-longest fruitless run at the ground — and six of those trips came under Arteta himself. In all competitions the winless run at Anfield had reached 16 visits. This was also Arsenal's first Premier League clean sheet at Anfield since that 2012 win.

Liverpool's side of the ledger is heavier still. Opta records that this was the first time since records began in 2003-04 that Liverpool failed to register a single shot on target in a home league game — in their 442nd league match at Anfield in that span. Their four home league goals this season are also their joint-fewest after five home matches of a top-flight campaign, matching 1913-14 and, pointedly, 2012-13.

As starts go, Arsenal's now belongs in the club's own history: 24 points after nine games is the most by any team at this stage since the Gunners themselves in 2022-23, and only the Arsenal sides of 2004-05 and 2007-08 have ever had more. And when this team scores first under Arteta, it wins 81.1 percent of the time — 137 of 169 — a rate bettered, among managers whose sides opened the scoring in 100 or more Premier League games, only by Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho. Sunday followed the script to the letter.

The Sports Desk's read: Anfield was the last frontier on Arteta's map — the one great away ground where his champions still had to prove they could win a game that turned into a siege. One moment of quality, seventy-four minutes of defiance, and not a single shot on target conceded. That is what title defences are built from.