Liverpool vs Arsenal: Masters of the late goal

Liverpool and Arsenal lead the way for late goals in the Premier League this season, but whose strikes have won the most points heading into Saturday’s clash at Anfield?

Liverpool and Arsenal have delivered Premier League classics over the years, but Saturday’s meeting is extra fascinating as they compete for the title.

Liverpool vs Arsenal

Despite the Reds’ flaws, their strength in both boxes — aided by Mohamed Salah's excellence at one end and Alisson Becker’s continued brilliance at the other — means the 2020 champions could outscore their opponents, while Mikel Arteta’s men go into Saturday’s gameweek 18 encounter on the back of their most complete showing of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

Having ended a three-game losing run against the Seagulls at the Emirates Stadium in the 2-0 triumph, it seems fitting that the Gunners immediately battle the Reds, keen to end their Anfield hoodoo.

This was nearly accomplished last season when the three-time Premier League champions went to Merseyside confident in their Anfield prospects due to the Gunners’ ascent individually and collectively and dominant away victories at Chelsea, Brentford and Tottenham Hotspur. Arteta’s men led 2-0 but could not hold on as Liverpool rallied, eventually fortunate to pick up a point when they previously held a seemingly unassailable two-goal advantage. 

That 2-2 draw began the run that ultimately ended the North Londoners’ title challenge, with Arsenal picking up two points from an available nine after the Anfield tie — including a 4-1 defeat by eventual champions Manchester City. 

Fast forward eight months since that encounter in early April, and Arteta’s troops are an even stronger unit, intent on ending Man City’s Premier League hegemony. Liverpool are hitherto breaking the mould of competing for the topflight title while participating in Europe’s secondary club competition, and it remains to be seen how the sterner Europa League knockout rounds affect the Reds’ domestic aspirations. 

While Liverpool and Arsenal lean on different approaches, they share an ambition to reign supreme in the Premier League. Both sides may be dissimilar in their modus operandi, but they have a similar knack for scoring late goals.

Liverpool: Klopp’s Mentality Monsters never stop pushing

As Liverpool chased a winner against Manchester United on Sunday, Sky Sports revealed an interesting statistic about the Reds in the game’s 78th minute: no Premier League side had found the back of the net more times from the 76th minute onwards. 

Klopp’s men surprisingly did not add to their 14 goals scored within that time frame, an upshot of their irresponsible shooting and suboptimal final-third execution against the Red Devils. Be that as it may, the broader narrative stands: despite their flaws, Liverpool, more often than not, cannot be discounted with time running out.

Nevertheless, it must be noted that not every Reds goal scored in the final 15 minutes of the 90 and second-half stoppage time have changed the course of games. The standout strikes from the 14 came at St James’ Park against Newcastle United — when a Darwin Nunez brace inspired a shorthanded Liverpool side to success — and in the rip-roaring 4-3 win over Fulham, a game Klopp’s troops trailed in after 80 minutes but scored twice before minute 90 to secure the victory. 

Two other comeback Liverpool victories have caught the eye. Klopp’s men overcame a lacklustre start against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the lunchtime fixture after September’s international break — falling behind to a seventh-minute Hwang Hee-Chan goal and avoiding a further setback after Matheus Cunha failed to connect to Pedro Neto’s perfect cross to double Wolves’ advantage — to score three after the break in a 3-1 win. 

Another lunchtime encounter at Crystal Palace a fortnight back saw Klopp’s side underwhelm for most of the game, only to be handed a lifeline after Jordan Ayew’s soft sending-off with 15 minutes of the 90 to play. Unsurprisingly, goals from Salah (76) and Harvey Elliot (91) turned the game around, but their German boss admitted it was an egregious performance until Salah levelled. 

Whenever the Reds have not secured wins from losing positions, they have found late goals to secure draws, underscored by Luis Diaz’s leveller at Luton and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s equaliser at the Etihad Stadium. 

Fourteen of Liverpool's late goals have come in 10 games, and they have claimed 13 points as a consequence. In four matches, goals after minute 75 had no bearing on the eventual result, meaning 60% of the club’s late strikes changed the course of games.

That rate is slightly higher with Arsenal.

Arteta’s relentless Arsenal

Even though last season’s runners-up have won fewer points with their late goals (9) and have netted 11 times in the concluding minutes of their games, Arteta’s men match Liverpool for matches won by scoring in that period (4).

Their standout triumph was a deflected Gabriel Martinelli strike against Guardiola’s men at the Emirates to end the Gunners’ 15-match winless run in the league against the Cityzens in October. The Brazilian’s effort raised the roof in the capital, but the wide attacker has not singlehandedly carried the can for the North Londoners. 

Declan Rice has netted game-clinching goals to secure colossal victories over the Red Devils in September and Arsenal’s fourth in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time to seal a 4-3 win at Luton on December 5. 

While Rice has scored two match-winning strikes, Kai Havertz has matched the England midfielder’s tally of goals in that period, albeit with one game clincher — the 1-0 triumph at Brentford in November — with the Germany international’s effort on Sunday confirming a comfortable victory over Roberto De Zerbi’s men. 

Havertz’s goal against the Seagulls was the Gunners’ 11th from the 76th minute onwards, but it was the third time in eight games a late strike has not directly won points for Arteta’s men. On five other occasions, decisive points have been accrued, with four victories secured and a point snatched against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge despite trailing 2-0 until Rice halved the deficit in the 77th minute.

Arsenal’s tendency for late goals in 2023-24 effectively continues a pattern that appeared in last season’s title push in which Arteta’s men intermittently scored with time running out, underscored by Bukayo Saka’s 76th-minute penalty against Liverpool at the Emirates, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson scoring stoppage-time winning strikes against Man Utd and Bournemouth, respectively, and two goals after the 90th minute to seal a late 4-2 triumph at Aston Villa. 

Even if Arteta’s troops have doubly relied on more control this season, the occasional opponent lets chaos loose, which is somewhat anticipated on Merseyside.

The outcome of this weekend's battle between Liverpool and Arsenal is anyone’s guess, but one thing is near assured in this top-of-the-table clash: no one will be leaving Anfield early or switching channels before the final whistle.

Related content