Preview: Arsenal vs. Liverpool
Liverpool travel down to London to take on Arsenal this Sunday.
ARSENAL VS. LIVERPOOL
| Sunday, Oct 27th|
Premier League | Emirates Stadium
4:30PM GMT/11:30AM EST
Liverpool are on an excellent eight game winning streak in all competitions as Arne Slot continues to guide his new team to impressive performances to begin the season. The last week saw the Reds pick up a victory against Chelsea in the Premier League at home and away against RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
Third placed Arsenal will be the next to host them on Sunday evening. The Gunners suffered their first league loss last week against Bournemouth. In that game, they went down to 10 men early on after William Saliba received a straight red card only 30 minutes into the match.
This means that Mikel Arteta’s side will be without their influential center-back on Sunday, which is a good thing for Liverpool. However, Slot’s men will also go into this match without their own world class defender in the form of goalkeeper Alisson Becker. The Brazilian remains out for the time being due to a hamstring injury. In his place is the competent and seasoned CaoimhÃn Kelleher.
Hopefully the power of Arne Slot can help end the poor run of form that Liverpool have had against Arsenal in recent times. They’ve come away winless in their first four league meetings and haven’t won a league game at the Emirates since March 2022.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-2-3-1)
Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo; Nunez
Diogo Jota will miss the Arsenal match, which means it will be Darwin Nunez leading the line following his game-winning performance against Leipzig. Harvey Elliott remains out of commission and new addition Federico Chiesa and Conor Bradley are both doubtful for the event. Luis Diaz might earn back his position from Cody Gakpo, but it’s more likely that the boss will stick with the triad of Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Gakpo again.
Arteta has a defensive issue with the aforementioned Saliba suspended, along with injuries to Kiernan Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, and most recently, Riccardo Calafiori. In doubt are Bukayo Saka and another defender, Jurrien Timber.
What the Managers Had to Say
Arne Slot: “I said before the game and after the game that I expect a lot from Chelsea this season, and I think they showed it also last Sunday at Anfield. They are a similar team to Arsenal when it comes to playing style, they also like to go with their full-back inside and come into the same formation as Arsenal. But if you look at the last two seasons, Arsenal were far ahead of us but also above Chelsea, so you would assume that playing Arsenal would even be more difficult.”
Mikel Arteta: “It’s a team that, you know, for nine years has been competing on the highest level in every competition, so they know how to compete. They know how to threat you when the ball is really far, when the ball is in the outside unit especially. They have individual quality to damage you, they are good on set-pieces. It’s a team that for nine years consistently has been there. That means that they are really good at everything that they do.”
The Officials
Referee: Anthony Taylor. Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn. Fourth official: Sam Barrott. VAR: Michael Salisbury. Assistant VAR: Darren Cann.
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Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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