Jurgen Klopp: 'Arsenal play with a direct style'

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that it is "a myth" that Arsenal are only a "football-playing team".

Klopp takes the Merseyside giants to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday as the new Premier League season gets underway, and the German has suggested that he is expecting their opponents offer more than just attractive football.

The 49-year-old told reporters: "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.

"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.

"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."

The last fixture between the two sides ended in a 3-3 draw, with Joe Allen scoring a dramatic equaliser during the closing stages.