Jurgen Klopp claims Arsenal have become a long ball team when it suits them.
The Liverpool boss insists the evidence was there for all to see in last season’s 3-3 draw.
The two teams clash in their Premier League opener at The Emirates this weekend and Klopp said: “I think everyone who saw the game saw the difference between this game and all the other Arsenal games.
“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.”
And Reds boss Klopp warned his side to expect an aerial barrage. He said: “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 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.”
Arsenal’s French striker Giroud scored twice in the thriller at Anfield in January and Ozil was superb, although neither are likely to start because they returned late to pre-season training following Euro 2016.
Liverpool finished runner-up last season in both the League Cup and Europa League, but their eighth-place finish in the Premier League was disappointing as they missed out on Europe.
Now boss Klopp is looking for more consistency from his side are he aims to take Liverpool’s form to “another level” in his first full season in charge.
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