Premier League: Gunners Take Aim for Liverpool

Liverpool vs Arsenal

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal travel north on Saturday to take on Premier League title hopefuls Liverpool and it may not be such a bad time to meet Jurgen Klopp’s side.

At SBOTOP odds of 1.46 to win, the Reds are hot favourites but Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have hit top form in recent weeks.

After a disastrous start to the campaign, Arsenal have been on a winning run and have climbed to fifth position and only two points behind their fourth placed hosts.

An away win would enable the Gunners to leapfrog the Reds into the Champions League places and, having won only two of their last six in the league, Liverpool might well be a little edgy.

Football is often about momentum. And at the moment, Arsenal have the momentum which has slipped away from the Anfield team.       

Talking Points

Henderson in the balance for Liverpool

Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat at the hands of West Ham sent the Merseysiders into the international break in a foul mood and the Reds fans won’t want to see another slip-up on their return.

With all respect to West Ham, the Premier League 2021 betting odds make it a three-way battle for the title, but Klopp’s side is in danger of drifting away from their main rivals Chelsea and Manchester City.

And whisper it quietly, but Arteta might just be finding the right mix at Arsenal for them to gatecrash the top four.

The biggest worry for Liverpool this weekend is the fitness of captain and midfield general Jordan Henderson. The Anfield side struggles to function at 100-per cent when their leader is absent and he’s currently undergoing analysis, training separately from his team-mates having picked up an injury on international duty.

The return to fitness of Fabinho eases the pressure on Klopp, but he will hope his captain is fit to play.

Wing-back Andrew Robertson also pulled up while playing for Scotland and he too is under review. Up front there is less doubt where Mo Salah will lead the line probably alongside Diogo Jota and Divock Origi as Sadio Mane has joined Roberto Firmino on the injury table.

Klopp can happily shuffle his pack with plenty of high quality backup available, but his skipper has proved to be irreplaceable.

Smith-Rowe is key for Arsenal

The Gunners are on a four-match winning streak — three in the league and a Carabao Cup victory over Leeds United — and they will fancy their chances against the Reds, whose defence has been dismantled recently by Brighton and West Ham.

Arteta is a keen tactician and he’ll have noted that both the Seagulls and the Hammers attacked Liverpool with a 4-2-3-1 formation, which enabled them to slice open the opposition defence.

Arsenal have been playing with a 4-4-1-1 formation, but Arteta can tweak that by pushing his wide players Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka a little further forward.  

Smith-Rowe has dominated the Premier League 2021 highlights in North London recently and he will thrive whichever formation Arteta uses. He is top scoring alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with four goals and he has two assists.

Smith-Rowe has scored in each of Arsenal’s last three league games in victories over Aston Villa, Leicester City, and Watford and he has the ability to cut open any defence with either a killer pass or his own pace and tight ball control. 

The 21-year-old has taken his international bow too, picking up two caps for England in the Three Lions’ World Cup qualification campaign and he surely has a very bright future.  

History

The head-to-heads between these two giants have been fiercely contested in the Premier League era and Liverpool have recently nudged ahead by 24 wins to 21 while there have been 20 draws.

The Reds did the double over Arsenal last season, winning 3-1 at Anfield early in the campaign when they roared back from behind after Alexandre Lacazette had given the Gunners an early lead.

Sadio Mane, Andrew Robertson, and Diogo Jota were on target as the Reds romped home. And then Jurgen Klopp’s side completed the double, winning 3-0 at the Emirates in April as Jota scored twice and the lethal Salah added a late third.

Liverpool are unbeaten in 14 matches at Anfield while the Gunners have gone 10 games in all competitions without a defeat.

Betting Tip

	Liverpool vs Arsenal	Arsenal or Draw @ 2.49
	November 21, 1:30 (GMT+8)

Arsenal are a long shot at odds of 5.60 to win with the draw at 4.45, and if this match had taken place a couple of months ago it would have been a fairly easy shout for a home win.

But the Gunners have been shooting with confidence in recent weeks while Liverpool have stuttered. If Arteta really is making serious progress at the Emirates, then his team needs to match the big boys on occasions like this.      

 

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