“I made a big mistake" - Klopp on tense finish against Arsenal

Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp, has accepted responsibility for almost letting Arsenal overturn his side’s 4-1 lead in their first Premiership game at the Emirates Stadium.

Liverpool took a 4-1 lead in the second half and the Liverpool manager celebrated Sadio Mane’s fourth goal by giving the debutant a piggyback but Arsenal pulled two goals back to set up a tense finish. Liverpool eventually won the match 3-4.

After the games, the German admitted he got carried away after the three points looked to have been all but secured.

“I made a big mistake because I was involved in celebrations.

“OK, the Premier League has started nothing is sure until the final whistle.

“I have a big, big part in the excitement of the last half an hour because it is not allowed to celebrate a fourth goal when there’s still 35 minutes to go.

“I knew in the moment, but it was too late I had Sadio on my back and in this moment we switched off the machine for a second. It was so intense, it was so wrong, it was the first game,” Klopp said.

“In this moment, Arsenal were not in a good way and we opened the match for them again. Of course it makes not too much sense.

“But at the end, and over the whole 90 minutes, it’s a deserved win. It will always be difficult in winning in London against Arsenal, but if you win like this then it’s deserved,” he told Sky Sports.

Arsenal took the lead courtesy of Theo Walcott before the Reds hit back with some dazzling football.

But Klopp said he had been most pleased by “staying in the game” after a tough start.

“It looked like after half an hour with 1-0 for Arsenal it’s very warm and it’s the first game that it’s not a Liverpool day. But then we strike back and that’s very, very important,” he said.

“It showed we can score goals. We can always score goals, and we can defend much better that’s what we have to do.

“But when we defend better, we are still a threat for each opponent and scoring goals. That’s good news.”