Full breakdown of Liverpool's false positives before Arsenal game revealed

Liverpool reportedly ordered an additional round of Covid-19 testing after players returned negative tests ahead of their first leg Carabao Cup clash with Arsenal.

The Reds requested a postponement of the game, claiming multiple players and backroom staff had tested positive for Covid-19. But three days later, Jurgen Klopp's men played Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup.

And now, The Athletic have revealed that Liverpool's game against Arsenal did not need to be called off. According to the report, the Reds sent their players to a local lab called BioGrad after a round of negative lateral flow tests, and requested the game be postponed before even knowing the results from this additional round of testing.

Positive results came back for 13 players, but the tests were discounted due to an error in the process. The report adds that "it is clear that Liverpool had no motive to get the game called off", and were simply protecting their squad from a second outbreak by taking extra caution.

Alisson, Joel Matip, and Roberto Firmino tested positive prior to the 2-2 draw, and missed the game, along with Klopp. When asked about the rearranged fixture earlier this month, Klopp said: "It's a positive test.

"When you are able to do a re-test, a day or one and a half day afterwards, it is negative. You then need to do a third test. And between the first and second, and second and third test, we can't use the players. When we got the first results, we had to consider it was the right result."

A source described the entire situation as: "A mix of a monumental ‘f**k-up’’, a whole dose of bad luck and a mess of a PR strategy.”

The second leg of the game finally took place on Thursday night, with Liverpool beating Arsenal 0-2.