Arsenal v Liverpool: Rivals Clash at the Top as Title Race Heats Up

A six-pointer, a title decider, a must-win; games of this caliber are usually ascribed with these monikers and understandably so. Despite still having virtually half the season to still play, the results of fixtures like this are heavily scrutinized at the end of a very tightly contested season. After all, it’s never pleasant to lose to a title rival.

Third place Arsenal meet league leaders Liverpool this weekend at the Emirates for their third meeting in the space of 40 days. Liverpool sit top five points clear of Arsenal with Manchester City sitting between the two.

Both teams played and won in the recent midweek games – Arteta’s Arsenal leaving Nottingham on Tuesday with a 2-1 win against Forest, scoring two second half goals after being quite lackadaisical in the final third during the first half. Goals from Gabriel Jesus and a good right footed finish by Bukayo Saka put the Gunners ahead before Taiwo Awoniyi scored late on to make things a tad tense at the end. While on Wednesday, Liverpool hosted and dominated Chelsea, scoring seemingly at will in a 4-1 win at Anfield, in the team’s first Premier League game since the shock announcement of manager Jurgen Klopp’s plan to end his time with the club at the end of the current season. Young Conor Bradley starred, scoring his first Premier League goal with a classy finish across goal to round out a counterattack. He continued the performance by assisting Dominic Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz in the second half to win the Man of the Match award.

Arsenal’s title chase this season is showing to be less straight forward and a little more stubborn than last year’s quest, probably down to the increase in competitiveness at the top of the table with the impressive form of Aston Villa and returns to form of North London rivals Tottenham and Sunday’s opponents, Liverpool.

Liverpool, who’ve taken a commanding position in the league this time around only losing once so far this season to the aforementioned Tottenham in a game that was heavily influenced by referee decisions at that, with the Reds having to finish the game with nine men. This form can surely only be bolstered by the news of Klopp’s resignation, as the players and team will be eager to send off their beloved manager with a title or perhaps more.

The reverse fixture this season was on December 23 at Anfield where the two played to a 1-1 draw. Gabriel Magalhães gave Arsenal the lead with a headed goal from a free kick set piece early on until Mohamed Salah levelled the score for Liverpool after a counterattack where Trent Alexander-Arnold found him from an brilliant long pass in the left channel and Salah quite easily cut goal side of Oleksandr Zinchenko and fired one past Arsenal keeper David Ray at his near post.

The stakes for this fixture are usually high, it being between two heavyweights in the Premier League, but the pressure this go round definitely falls more on Arsenal. A loss would see them fall 8 points behind Liverpool on the table, which isn’t insurmountable but considering Liverpool’s quality and the added motivation of sending Klopp off well, it wouldn’t bode well; not to mention also giving City the opportunity to pull away as they’re level on points while holding a game in hand at the moment.

The recent FA Cup fixture at the Emirates was a cagey game which Liverpool controlled for the most part Jesus was missing through injury for Arsenal and Havertz covered in the central striker role, which didn’t serve them well going forward. But ultimately the better team won via a Kiwior own goal from a corner kick and a Luis Diaz finish to knock Arsenal out of the cup.

“We can just play the best season we can play” Klopp said to BBC Sport in light of his recent resignation and the upcoming game.
“Arsenal, if they can beat us, they are definitely there. There are so many games and people like to judge already.”

“We will try to make it as hard as possible for who wants to finish this season above us. Let’s see if we can do it”

If there is a winner after Sunday’s game, regardless of who, they’ll be in a much better position and full of spirits as it comes to their title challenge.

As far as is known now, there are no new injuries to Arsenal’s squad; they’ll hope to have Thomas Partey back and while it’s unlikely that Emile Smith-Rowe will start, he could make an appearance on the back of the good game he had against Nottingham Forest midweek. For Liverpool, Mohamed Salah will not feature after sustaining a hamstring injury while at international duty for Egypt at AFCON. Szoboszlai, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson have all been declared fit from past recent injuries but there is no confirmation of if they’ll start or play yet.

Sunday’s fixture is looking to be a must-watch considering all that’s at stake for both teams.