Jurgen Klopp was 'desperate' to avoid replay as Liverpool overcome Arsenal

Jurgen Klopp has expressed his relief at preventing the addition of another fixture to Liverpool's already busy calendar as the Reds avoided an FA Cup replay by beating Arsenal 2-0.

After a Jakub Kiwior own goal broke the deadlock 10 minutes from time, Luis Diaz sealed the win in stoppage time to send Liverpool into the fourth round of the competition.

Despite being without a handful of key stars such as Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Andy Robertson, the Reds still managed to get the job done against one of their biggest rivals for the Premier League title.

Continuing a fantastic record of late away at the Gunners, with Liverpool having now won four of their last five on the red side of north London, Klopp is delighted with his team's performance - while also being relieved to have avoided a draw.

"I'm super proud," he told BBC Sport. It's a super difficult draw. Maybe the most difficult we could have got.

"We were really in the game in the second half. We scored the goals and brought the kids on.

"We fought for 95 minutes. We desperately wanted to avoid a draw. Now I don't have to make any decisions which is good.

"We have a winter break now."

The game was very much one of two halves, with Liverpool severely under the cosh for much of the first 45 and thus lucky to go into the break level.

That changed after the break, with Darwin Nunez moving to the left and Luis Diaz switching to the right, leading to both becoming increasingly involved in proceedings.

"It was obvious there would be changes," Klopp added, speaking on the alterations he made at the break.

"Today the boys bought into it and we could make them. Not too many. In the end we came through.

"I'm really happy and proud we could win this game. Arsenal could have won it without a doubt. We finished it off and it spoke for the character of the boys."