Jurgen Klopp stopped his Liverpool press conference to deliver brilliant Arsenal speech, fans are loving his honesty
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp couldn't help but heap praise on Arsenal ahead of the two sides meeting this weekend.
The Reds are currently ninth in the Premier League after just two wins all season. They've played one game fewer than Arsenal but are 11 points adrift of Mikel Arteta's side at the top of the table.
Sunday's game at the Emirates Stadium promises to be an entertaining spectacle, with both sides looking to make a statement.
Klopp waxed lyrical about Gunners winger Gabriel Martinelli earlier this year but his kind words extended to six other Arsenal stars in Friday's pre-match press conference.
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When asked if Arsenal were genuine Premier League title contenders, Klopp replied: "All my respect, wow! Really good job from Mikel [Arteta]. When you need time, nobody wants to give you time and I have lots of respect for it.
"[Gabriel] Martinelli, very early I was excited about him. He's become exactly the player I expected. Martin Odegaard, I spoke to him when he was 15 in Norway when the whole world wanted him. [Bukayo] Saka… oof. Since the first day he played he's been incredible."
Klopp touched on Arteta's transfer business, which included bringing Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to the club from Manchester City in the summer.
Arteta previously worked with the duo as City assistant manager between 2016 and 2019, meaning he knows their strengths and weaknesses.
The German coach continued: "Gabriel Jesus, Mikel could see how good he could be not in a Man City shirt and in a fixed No.9 position. He signed Oleksandr Zinchenko, brought Granit Xhaka back on track. Thomas Partey, everyone saw how good he was at Atletico Madrid.
"Lots of quality. A young, exciting team doing really well. Now we go there and we don’t think about [past results]."
Both teams were successful in midweek, with Liverpool defeating Rangers 2-0 in the Champions League and Arsenal coming out 3-0 winners against Bodo/Glimt.
Liverpool lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, breaking away from their typical 4-2-3-1 setup.
Darwin Nunez was the focal point up front and looked impressive despite not registering a goal while Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz played out wide and looked back to their best with acres of space to operate in.
Diogo Jota completed the quartet in a deeper role than Nunez. It offers Liverpool more threat in attack, which could be beneficial against an Arsenal team that has kept three clean sheets already so far this campaign.
Daniel Marland