Arsenal must beware Diogo Jota – a player with a habit of hurting them

There will come a point – perhaps this summer, perhaps next, perhaps further into the future – when Liverpool’s next manager will face the problem of finding a successor for one of their greatest ever players. Replacing Mohamed Salah may be the impossible task. In the last month, however, Diogo Jota has shown he can deputise adeptly for the Egyptian as he has first been at the Africa Cup of Nations and then injured.

Darwin Nunez can be entertainingly erratic, but Jota is more clinical. He is Liverpool’s most reliable scorer in Salah’s absence; indeed he actually has a higher chance conversion rate than the talisman. He has taken on Salah’s mantle in another respect: Harvey Elliott, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo have all had their minutes on the right flank in recent weeks. Jota, though, has exerted the most impact.

Moved to the right in the half-time reshuffle at Bournemouth, Jota then scored twice in a role he rarely occupies. He struck as a starter against Chelsea, powering his way between Thiago Silva and Benoit Badiashile. Jota has been Anfield’s great disruptor, the man who broke up Jurgen Klopp’s definitive front three of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Salah, the forward with the uncanny ability to ghost into space to elude defenders.

That positional sense, that reading of the game and that movement are qualities that have long endeared him to Klopp. If the former director of football Michael Edwards merited much of the credit for signing Salah, Klopp’s skills as a scout came to the fore when Jota was recruited. Liverpool did not have to fight off the super-clubs for his signature in 2020, but Klopp had seen something in the Portuguese that others didn’t.

“His game understanding is at a different level and that makes Diogo the kind of player he is for us,” the Liverpool manager said. “From the first moment I saw him at Wolves I was excited about his potential. He can play all three positions up front, which is important when Mo is not here.

“When you are strikers in a good moment, you have to use it. You surf on the wave, if possible you can add a few [goals] on, and that is what he is doing. The goal he scored against Chelsea was an unbelievable goal. But you can only do that and have the idea to get through those two guys when you are full of confidence. He did that and was fantastic. He gave this game the right direction for us.”

That Chelsea were his opponents felt typical. Jota has a capacity to make a mark on such stages. In five games for Liverpool against Manchester United, he has two goals and two assists. He has two goals, one an injury-time winner, in four matches against Tottenham. He had a catalytic cameo against Newcastle last month.

His favourite opponents, however, have tended to be Arsenal. He faces them on Sunday and, in 10 meetings with the Gunners in a Liverpool shirt, Jota has seven goals and two assists. He has been more prolific at the Emirates Stadium, scoring five times there, including a Carabao Cup semi-final brace two years ago.

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He has a fearlessness, a big-game mentality and a footballing instinct that Klopp feels owes something to his homeland. “He always was an extremely smart footballer,” he said. “If the world looks to a country where it is not big but has a lot of extremely smart footballers, it is Portugal. The amount of footballers they have delivered to the football world compared to the amount of people is crazy. And the kind of players, too. Really special.”

Klopp has a lone concern: For someone who can evade opponents when sniffing out chances, Jota can still be hurt by them. “He got a few injuries at a wrong time,” Klopp said. “He is unlucky and Diogo gets in each game knocks like crazy. If I go through the medical reports since Diogo is here, he is always there – and not as ‘injured’ but just has a bruise, has a knock and he really gets it. On top of that, a couple of times he is out for too long or his numbers would look different.”

Those statistics still show a best return of 21 goals in a season for Liverpool. Yet as Jota is sometimes sidelined, sometimes a substitute, goals per minute may offer a better assessment of his contribution: This season he has struck every 103. Now he has four goals in four games, seven in his last 11.

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“He was in really good shape before he got injured, came back and is in really good shape, he is literally flying,” Klopp added. “Everything looks light, he is fresh, looks explosive.”

That explosiveness renders a 32-match, one-year goal drought all the odder but Jota now has 20 goals in under 10 months, despite the summer break and a month out before Christmas. Jamie Carragher branded him Liverpool’s best finisher in the Premier League years and if Robbie Fowler’s advocates may not concur, he is one of the finest in the division now. His 29 per cent chance conversion rate is the sixth best of anyone with three or more goals in the top flight this season, the third best of those with at least eight.

Klopp never judges completely on goals, however, and appreciates Jota’s full contribution. “He just has it,” the German said. “He is a complete package, and he knows that and everyone knows that.” Especially Arsenal.