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Saturday Night Takeaways: Klopp's Liverpool can't defend, Costa strikes again and Arsenal struggle against Leicester

Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Hull City remain the only unbeaten teams after tw...



Saturday Night Takeaways: Klop...
Soccer

Saturday Night Takeaways: Klopp's Liverpool can't defend, Costa strikes again and Arsenal struggle against Leicester

Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Hull City remain the only unbeaten teams after two games of the new Premier League season.

No, that's not a typo; Hull have six points out of six after beating Leicester and Swansea to become just the second promoted team ever to win the first two games of the season.

Some other interesting things we learned on Saturday:

Klopp's Liverpool can't defend

For a manager so bemused at the state of football and the need to buy rather than coach, Jurgen Klopp doesn't seem to be able to coach his defenders how to defend. It was his left-back last week, who put their three points in jeopardy. Alberto Moreno was subsequently dropped but Nathanial Clyne gave the ball away before a concoction of positioning errors in Liverpool's defence led to Burnley's first goal after just 90 seconds.

Shortly after that, a mistake by Ragnar Klavan and some more comical defending led to Klopp's men going 2-0 down and never looking like they could get back into the tie.

Klopp has about ten days to figure out who will play in his back four and while James Milner stepped in at left-back today, the German has a myriad of problems in his defence. They have been linked with a move for Shkodran Mustafi that would make sense but the sooner someone comes in and steadies that ship the better for all Liverpool fans around the world.

Diego Costa strikes again

Antonio Conte fought all summer, on all fronts, to keep Diego Costa at Chelsea. He was forced to battle Atletico Madrid's president who seemed sure Costa would come back to the Vicente Calderon, he had to fight the media who seemed sure Costa would go back to the Calderon and he had to fight Costa, who was sure he wanted to go back to the Calderon.

That stubborn, resolute attitude that Conte showed in the handling of the situation has reared its head now when it matters in Chelsea's first two games of the season.

Costa struck late against West Ham last Monday night and he did it again as Chelsea came from one goal down to beat Watford 2-1 at Vicarage Road. They may not be playing the swash-buckling football on display when Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola's sides line out but they are winning and look a more cohesive unit in the last 180 minutes than they did at any point last season.

Antonio Conte could be the manager Roman Abramovich was looking for all along.

Arsenal going through a crisis?

Despite welcoming Laurent Koscielny back into their line-up, Arsenal could not break down Leicester and have only got one point from a possible six as Arsene Wenger's season starts in a worrying fashion. For a team normally brimming with confidence, they seem devoid of character and did not create as many chances as they normally do against Claudio Ranieri's side. 

Alexis Sanchez started up front for the Gunners but the Chilean did little of note to coax Arsenal's attack into life and while Koscielny helped their defence by virtue of helping them not concede four goals, they were still pinned back when Leicester came to life at the end of the second half and were lucky not to have conceded a penalty during that time.

The early pace-setters in City, United and Chelsea, along with Spurs and even Everton have proven they will not be hanging around and giving teams second chances this year and Arsenal are on the back foot yet again after just two games of the season.

Much like Klopp, Wenger has ten days to highlight a defender and a striker in an effort to improve his squad for a Champions League push or else the final year of his contract will be the final year of his tenure at Arsenal.

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