Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal (Havertz 16′)

ANFIELD — The last time Arsenal won at Anfield, Mikel Arteta got booked. That time, there was definitely no touchline discrimination from match officials because it was 2012 and Arteta was playing for the victors in central midfield. This one took his team clear at the top, again. It’s beginning to feel ominous once more.

Liverpool and Arsenal has never felt like the Premier League rivalry: too late-1980s coded, too steeped in history, too much missing each other and taking it in turns to surge, too many other clubs complicating things with their geographical rivalries.

But this could become its time to shine. Sunday felt seismic. Its importance – either Arsenal making a statement or Liverpool hauling themselves into a title race – hung heavy in the air. The atmosphere was hardly the stuff of fevered vitriol, but there was absolutely a prickly dislike.

Arsenal won because they took a lead, quite simply. You have to go all the way back to February for the last time that Arteta’s team dropped any Premier League points from a winning position and they have led an awful lot of league games since. That was at Molineux, the late 2-2 and mini psychodrama. They don’t even have those much anymore.

They also won because they pressed high and won the ball. If that seemed to surprise Alisson and Jeremy Jacquet, there was a decent excuse. Last season, only Brighton won possession in the final third more often than Arsenal. So far this season, Brighton are still top but Arsenal rank down in eighth. The Gunners have been more circumspect, more controlled. Hence the criticism from the aesthetes.

This was billed as Liverpool’s opportunity to force their way into a title race and they fell short. Andoni Iraola’s side tested Arsenal before half-time, rattling a crossbar and Arteta’s resolve. Arsenal’s manager simultaneously called for calm while screaming at the top of his voice. Declan Rice did his own version of the same act after a short passing failure.

Liverpool’s problem? They proceeded to get worse rather than better. The introductions from the bench only made their attack more piecemeal and fragmented, as if scoring an equaliser had to come in the style of the final challenge on Supermarket Sweep. They needed composure, not a mad mass of ingredients.

At these times, you call upon your creative influences. Nobody really expected Milos Kerkez to haul Liverpool back into the game, because he is a man who simply refuses to keep his head or win a duel. You cannot expect the new signings or the substitute academy kids to make the difference against experienced heads.

What about Florian Wirtz, who cost more than £100m and has been here 15 months? He had three shots, none of which were on target. He failed to create a chance. He failed to complete a dribble. He played lots of pretty passes but none that actually caused any panic for the best defence in the league. Which is sort of the point.

After the game, Arsenal’s own £100m man – and goal creator on Sunday – spoke on the pitch to the media with the broadest grin on his face. If you want to win a title, your most expensive parts have to turn up in the biggest games. Rice, to quote Andy Gray back in the day, does that time and time and time again.

Wirtz does it in fits and starts. Liverpool will grow stronger; this is clearly only the beginning of the journey. Arsenal can barely get any stronger than this. They win whenever they go in front, they manage big matches like a team of bouncers and they have a three-point lead at the top of the table.

As the banner at one end of Anfield read, “Arsenal run this country again”. It’s hard to find many arguments to offer a repudiation of such a forthright show of dominance.