Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal: Elliott shines in second USA friendly win

Harvey Elliott put in a man-of-the-man display as Liverpool beat Arsenal 2-1 on Wednesday night in Philadelphia. 

The playmaker created both goals as Mohamed Salah and Fabio Carvalho gave the Merseysiders a first-half lead before Kai Havertz pulled one back for Arsenal. 

It was the second match of the Reds’ three-game pre-season tour of the United States, following success against Real Betis on Friday night. 

The game took place at the Lincoln Financial Field with Arne Slot’s side taking on Manchester United on Saturday night at the Williams-Brice Stadium 

Liverpool opened the scoring with a textbook example of what fans are dubbing ‘Slot-ball’ - a free flowing move which began with Caoimhin Kelleher finding centre forward Diogo Jota. 

The returning Portuguese striker laid the ball off to Elliott, who played a wonderful through ball to Salah and the Egyptian king held off Gabriel before finishing beyond Karl Hein. 

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Shortly after, Dominik Szoboszlai jinked through the Gunners’ back line before finding Elliott at the edge of the box. He elevated a sumptuous through ball over the top of the defence to find the run of Fabio Carvalho. 

He hit a fantastic first-time volley to send the Liverpool fans inside the stadium into raptures. 

Some good work from Odegaard inside the area preceded a Havertz tap-in before half time as Mikel Arteta’s side halved the deficit. 

Reds impress in second friendly win

Nonetheless it will have been another satisfactory outing for Slot and his coaching staff, who remain without top stars like Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez. 

Euro 2024 pair Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch flew to the United States earlier this week in order to rejoin the squad but played no part in the victory over Arsenal. 

Youngster Trey Nyoni had another cameo from the bench after starring versus Betis while other academy players like Amara Nallo, Harvey Blair and Luca Stephenson also got a run out. 

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There was no place in the starting lineup for Wataru Endo following his struggles against the Spanish side. He came on again here, he was booked. 

Curtis Jones was fit enough to start after an injury scare against Betis and he played alongside Szoboszlai and Elliott in the middle after their outing at ‘false 9’ on Friday night. 

Carvalho played from the right despite his wishes to play more centrally with Jota occupying the No.9 position. 

Liverpool are back in action on Saturday night before flying home for a fixture against Sevilla at Anfield on August 11. 

The Premier League season kicks off against Ipswich Town on August 17.