Jurgen Klopp singles out seven Arsenal players for praise

The Reds boss spoke of the Gunners ahead of Sunday’s heavyweight in the Premier League.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has lavished praise on the squad that Mikel Arteta has assembled at Arsenal.

The Premier League leaders welcome Liverpool to the Emirates on Sunday for their next match. They are 11 points above the Reds, having won seven of their eight games so far. It came after some shrewd recruitment over the summer to bolster a squad already blooming with potential.

Klopp even paid mention to captain Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Thomas Partey, and Granit Xhaka while discussing Arteta’s team.

“All my respect, really, really good job,” Klopp said of his Arsenal counterpart Arteta in a pre-match press conference on Friday.

“When you need some time, nobody wants to give you time, and maybe not all of us deserve it. You still need to be good at using the time, and Mikel obviously did. Lots of respect for it.”

“They had a lot of talent already in the last few years,” Klopp added.

“Martinelli, I was very early excited about him and he became exactly the player I expected he will be.

“Martin Odegaard, I spoke to him when he was 15 from Norway and the whole world wanted him and he decided on Real Madrid. I remember it like it was yesterday. We sat at a table with his dad and we were so excited. There were a few difficult years that were normal when you are so much in the spotlight. He became the player everybody expected.

“Saka, oof, I think from the first day since he’s playing it’s been incredible and Gabriel Jesus if anybody knew how good he could be, not in a Man City shirt, in a fixed No.9 role then it was Mikel because he worked with him, same with Zinchenko.

“He’s brought Xhaka back on track. Thomas Partey, everyone knew how good he was when he was at Atletico and the last line is now really settled. They found a way they want to defend, and that’s it.”