By Rob Worthington (Deputy Editor)
Liverpool Vs Arsenal. 9th April 2023. Anfield.
Ahead of this fixture infighting has erupted within Arsenal’s social media community. Some are assessing the match-up more practically. 1st place team travels to 8th place team in the Premier League, 1st should be clear favourites.
Others are quite justifiably pointing to the intangible elements of any Arsenal visit to Anfield. This is a stadium Mikel Arteta is yet to win at and as revealed in Amazon’s All or Nothing: Arsenal docuseries, it’s also a stadium the Spaniard genuinely fears.
Previewing the fixture, it’s important to account for both perspectives. Liverpool have had a terrible season and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to suggest Jürgen Klopp’s illustrious tenure might soon be coming to an end. Arsenal, on the other hand, have replaced Liverpool as Manchester City’s main title race contenders.
Recent form would also suggest Arsenal should be confident heading into this fixture. With their emphatic 7-0 win over Manchester United something of an anomaly, Liverpool have flattered to deceive since Premier League football re-commenced post-World Cup.
The Reds have won just 2 of their last 6 Premier League games, also losing two in the same period. In the midst of that stretch of fixtures they also crashed out of the Champions League causing Real Madrid very few problems.
That 7-0 trouncing of Manchester United serves as a warning to Arsenal though. The Gunners may have won their last 7 Premier league games off the back of the scare of home defeat to Manchester City, but Liverpool truly are a different beast at Anfield.
Jürgen Klopp’s men delivered consecutive pitiful displays against Manchester City and Chelsea respectively in the last week but over the course of the season have lost just 1 game at home. That singular home defeat at the hands of Jesse Marsch’s Leeds occurred prior to the World Cup too. Since domestic football’s resumption, Liverpool have flown at home.
One might thus argue the team most likely to trouble Liverpool at Anfield is the Premier League side with the best away record. And that team is league leaders Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s men have been imperious on the road this season. They haven’t been quite so free-scoring and have registered one more defeat on the road than they have at the Emirates, but they’ve shown a better ability to control games away from home.
Away from the Emirates, the Gunners have conceded a mere 9 goals, whilst at their own ground they’ve conceded 18. Arteta’s side have also kept the majority of their clean sheets on the road often showing a better temperament throughout the 90 minutes.
So the Anfield version of Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool may well be meeting their kryptonite this weekend. This, however, is where the intangibles come into play.
There are two points of view two consider when assessing soft factors heading into this fixture. The first is Arsenal’s record at Anfield.
Arsenal have only managed to register 2 league victories on their travels to Merseyside to face Liverpool since 2011. The Gunners have also been humiliated at Anfield on multiple occasions within that time frame.
There’s also Arteta’s Arsenal’s overall record against the Reds. Prior to victory over Klopp’s men this season, Arteta had only managed to get the better of Liverpool once as Arsenal boss. And one of those aforementioned Arsenal humiliations at Anfield occurred under Arteta last season, the north London outfit losing 4-0 on the day.
The second perspective to consider is how much Liverpool are going to want to win this game. As the sentiment of many Liverpool fans on social media would suggest, the Reds do not want to see Arsenal pip Manchester City to the title this year.
This sentiment does not perpetuate from an innate dislike of Arsenal within the Liverpool fanbase, rather from their own performance in the Premier League in recent seasons.
Over the course of the last 5 Premier League seasons, bar the 20/21 campaign, Liverpool have pretty much gone toe to toe with Manchester City in the race to win the Premier League. Over those 5 seasons, the Reds managed to overcome City just once, an achievement arguably overshadowed by the context of an empty Anfield during the trophy lift.
Arsenal meanwhile have been in the midst of one of the most underwhelming periods in their history whilst City and Liverpool have been at each other’s throats at the top. Champions League football will almost certainly return to the Emirates next season. However, six whole years have passed since the competition reserved for Europe’s elite has been played in N5.
And now all of a sudden, with 9 games to go in the 2022/23 season, Arsenal are favourites to win the Premier League title sitting 8 points clear of Manchester City. It’s Arteta’s first real effort at competing with City, and it looks like he might beat Guardiola to the title.
If Arsenal do go on to win it, between 2017 and 2023, they will share the same number of Premier League titles as Liverpool. Within this period, Liverpool have been widely regarded by many to be one of the greatest Premier League teams of all time. An Arsenal title doesn’t reflect well on that notion.
So, on the face of it, Sky Sports might simply be televising 8th Vs. 1st in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon. However, deeper digging has shown Liverpool’s visitors at Anfield on Sunday face their toughest intangible test of the season.
Time and time again this season Arsenal have managed to overcome mental battles which have notoriously got the better of them in years gone by. Confidence will be brimming in the Arsenal camp, but a recognition of the scale of the difficulty of a trip to Anfield will doubtless be apparent come Sunday.
For this Arsenal squad though, it’s just another chance to break an unfavourable curse. All eyes on Sunday as the Gunners battle to end a 13 year wait for a league double over Liverpool.
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