Arsenal 3 Liverpool 4: Philippe Coutinho stars as Arsene Wenger's defence crumbles in seven-goal thriller

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Standard Sport14 August 2016

Philippe Coutinho scores two fine goals as Liverpool fought back from a goal down to beat Arsenal 4-3 and consign the Gunners to yet another Premier League opening-day defeat at home.

Theo Walcott put Arsenal on 31 minutes - just ahead 68 seconds after missing a penalty - but Jurgen Klopp's visitors ruthlessly exploited a weakened Arsenal defence to take all three points from Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Arsenal are closing in on a £28million deal for Valencia centre-back Shkodran Mustafi, but Arsene Wenger will now surely have to spend more in the transfer market to avoid more anger from the stands as his make-shift backline conceded four goals.

Things looked to be going the Gunners' way after a bright start with youngsters Rob Holding and Calum Chambers in central defence, with Walcott making amends after seeing his spot-kick saved by Simon Mignolet by beating the Liverpool goalkeeper barely a minute later.

However, Coutinho struck a wonderful long-range free-kick into the top right-hand corner of Petr Cech's net to send the teams in level at half-time - and Liverpool then made Arsenal pay after the break.

Adam Lallana scored soon after the restart with Coutinho quickly adding a second, with only a fine save from Cech denying the Brazilian playmaker his hat-trick.

Things got worse for the Gunners as Liverpool's summer signing Sadio Mane thrashed home a wonderful effort to make it 4-1, though substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain raised hopes of a fightback with a deflected effort moments after before alum Chambers headed home with 15 minutes to go.

But Arsenal continued to look lost in defence as Liverpool threatened on the counter, and an astounding home defeat - their third in four seasons on the opening day at the Emirates - will give Wenger and the Arsenal fans plenty of food for thought before the transfer window shuts on August 31.

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