Mikel Arteta was "proud" of Arsenal as it beat Liverpool at Anfield for the first time in 14 years, making the point that his players stood up to the intensity of Anfield

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta felt that his side managed the difficult environment at Anfield much better today than in the past, which helped lead the Gunners to an important win.

Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game in the first half, with Arsenal holding onto a clean sheet after that. Liverpool had the majority of the ball, but never looked like it was going to find the back of the net.

"Extremely proud," Arteta said on Sky Sports at the final whistle. "It's been 14 years (since Arsenal won at Anfield), and that's a long time, so I'm sure we made everybody attached to the club extremely proud today.

"Not only for the victory but for the way we've done it, the spirit we've shown. Especially considering what happened four days ago when you lose and go out of the cup against a team you are supposed to beat.

"That's the magical part of this game. It can take you to really bad places but four days later you have the opportunity to do something really historic and we've done it.

"You have to go through that (coping with the Anfield atmosphere), otherwise you don't win. We have had previous like that in the past and hadn't sustained it.

"We made a penalty or misread in the box or sometimes they have a magical moment and put the ball in the net and you don't manage to win the game. Today we had all of that, we had an element of luck as well and we had the quality in the right moments as well to hurt them."

Havertz's early strike came after an error from Alisson Becker. But after that, Arsenal kept Liverpool at arm's length, with David Raya not needing to make a single save.

"The game is going to turn in a different direction very quickly," Arteta explained. "The way they attack, they can generate vertical attacks almost from a bad clearance or a bad throw, that's the quality that they have.

"You have to be prepared and immediately to react to that with 60 meters to defend with four or five players running into your box. We discussed that and we put everything into those actions, sometimes with more quality, sometimes with less quality, and we generated our own chaos.

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"But, as well, I think we have to give credit to the players for the situations and chances today that we didn't put away.

"Overall, to win against a team that is producing what they are doing, and also in the emotional state after Fleetwood, that's what a winning team should do."

Arteta also claimed not to have seen the incident where Jurrien Timber pulled back Alexander Isak's jersey as he went up for a header inside the penalty area.

On the Premier League title race, he insisted that it remains "too early" to be looking too far ahead. Arsenal, given the potential sanctions that could be handed to Manchester City, is the clear favorite to retain its title.