Liverpool continue to provide reminder of just how good they are - and just how difficult it will be to catch them

Jurgen Klopp is starting to resemble the bully at children’s parties who is going around popping everyone else's balloons.

First Chelsea, now Arsenal. There is a perverse pleasure in heading into fixtures hearing how much damage an improving opponent is going to do, only for them to realise 90 minutes later how far away they remain.

Mikel Arteta has made an excellent start in north London and there is no questioning the scale of his club’s improvement. The reality check here was not comparable to that endured by Frank Lampard a week ago.

Nevertheless, there has been a sense going into the last two games of London clubs overestimating how much they have strengthened. Maybe - and more likely - they have forgotten how good Liverpool are and how much better they may be getting.

This is not an ageing championship winning side. Klopp’s side won the Champions League before it peaked, and reached the Premier League summit last season with an average age which means they can enjoy the view for a couple more seasons.

They have spent the last few months checking below, intrigued by the attempts of those trying to climb towards them, One by one over the opening Premier League fixtures they have all suffered an early slip.

Arteta’s initial blueprint for trying to unsettle Liverpool was certainly novel, but lulling Klopp’s side into such superiority they may be prone into a mid-half nap is not advisable for the rest of the Premier League. It worked for the second consecutive Premier League fixture from Arsenal when from their first attack, Andy Robertson joined the club established by Alisson and Virgil van Dijk at The Emirates in July.

Alexandre Lacazette benefitted from the left-back’s error, but his sheepish response to miskicking beyond the Liverpool keeper gave the impression he almost knew what was coming.

Chris Bascombe's Liverpool briefing

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What immediately followed was a side wounded by the injustice of seeing their most complete performance since becoming champions threaten to go unrewarded.

Liverpool’s first-half performance was scintillating. What more superlatives than can be found for this ultra-pressing, counter-pressing and passing machine which - when in the mood - is as clinical in possession as they are dynamic without it?

Thiago Alcantara is supposed to be the player who will elevate this side. Absent here, Klopp’s reminder of how little there is to improve was shown to be no idle boast.

So what glimmers of hope is there for those trying to attain Liverpool’s level? Klopp’s football is never safe. He will never order a defence deep and prey on the counter-attack. He never did that with a mediocre Liverpool squad, let alone one as accomplished as this.

That makes his side thrilling and, yes, occasionally vulnerable. There were times when Arsenal were smothered in their final third, attempting to cleverly bypass Liverpool’s forwards and midfielders only to be outnumbered. When they did string passes together they could find space and expose Liverpool’s defenders. They were more ambitious in the second half, playing 10 yards higher up the pitch and forcing Liverpool to pass with more anxiety than poise.

Arsenal showed bravery can be rewarded, although few dare to be brave against Klopp’s Liverpool because before Diogo Jota’s first Liverpool goal to make it 3-1, he could have had another two.

So opponents keep coming to Anfield with little choice but to hope and wait for mistakes. Sometimes - as Robertson showed prior to making amends - they do happen. But not much. And not enough over 38 games to make this season look like it will be radically different from the last.