Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said his over-exuberant celebrations were to blame for his team nearly throwing away victory in their pulsating 4-3 Premier League win at Arsenal on Sunday.
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After Theo Walcott put Arsenal ahead at the Emirates Stadium, Philippe Coutinho scored twice and Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane also found the net as the visitors stormed into a 4-1 lead.
Klopp celebrated with his players on the sidelines and he took some of the blame for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers reducing the deficit for Arsenal.
“The manager (Juergen Klopp) said a lot of things we needed to improve on in the second half and I felt we did that”.
He is quoted by BBC Sport: “At this moment, we switched off the machines”. The game was not over. Arsenal lost, but we gave them a path back into the game. Over the whole of the 90 minutes it was a deserved win. But it’s always hard coming to Arsenal.
Arsenal lost at home on the opening day of the season for the third time in four years, with sections of fans suggesting the club are under prepared for the beginning of the new campaign.
“The thing I don’t understand is, we’ve been told that Arsenal are wealthy, that they have money, that we can compete against anyone in the market”, Henry told Sky Sports. “When you concede four goals then obviously you can not be happy as a team because you should not concede four goals at home, but I thought it was a really good experience for them”.
“At the back we lacked a bit of maturity but we knew that before the game”, said Wenger.
“We came out and scored wonderful goals and then I made the big mistake and got involved in the celebrations”.
However, Wenger highlighted the absentees in defence – Gabriel Paulista, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny – while agreeing on the need to be ready for the first game of the season.
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Wenger confirmed that Ramsey had injured his hamstring whilst Alex Iwobi, who had looked the brightest of Arsenal’s front four had picked up a thigh injury. I was really happy about having half-time because we could speak about everything.
