Jurgen Klopp accuses Wenger of using ‘long balls’

Jurgen Klopp has taken jibes at Arsene Wenger, claiming his Arsenal have become a long ball team when it suits them.

Liverpool and Arsenal meet in their Premier League opener this weekend, with Klopp and Wenger coming up against each other for the seventh time.

Wenger has the better record against the German, winning three and losing just one, but the last time they met it ended in a 3-3 draw.

Klopp believes Arsenal changed their usual style of play and utilised the long ball against Liverpool, and the former Borussia Dortmund boss is expecting more of the same at the Emirates on Sunday.

“I think everyone who saw the game saw the difference between this game and all the other Arsenal games,” Klopp said.

“But in the last few years Arsenal had a more direct style. They have only good football players but at the end they don’t use all of them in each build up or each offensive movement – it is a myth.

“It is definitely a plan and they want to win games.”

He added: “Arsenal is usually a football playing team but last time against us there was a lot of long balls and always to Olivier Giroud.

“The second ball was to [Mesut] Ozil, they caused us a lot of problems in this game. That was a big threat on that day.

“We knew about it because a lot of teams chose this way against us so it we could have defended on this day better.

“It was not about what they did, it was about how they did it because it was highest quality with how Giroud and Mesut Ozil, especially, on this day performed.”