Arsenal v Liverpool: Premier League Preview

Arsenal face Liverpool this evening in a real test of their progress so far under Unai Emery. The first season under Arsene Wenger’s successor started with defeats against two of the “top six” when they lost to City and Chelsea. It was a baptism of fire, but the team responded brilliantly by winning their next 11 games in all competitions with seven of those victories coming in the Premier League.

That run came to an end in a 2-2 draw at Palace last week, but it was a soft landing at least. The team responded with a 2-1 win in midweek against Blackpool in the Carabao Cup even if it was more or less a reserve team. The big test comes today when unbeaten Liverpool come to the Emirates and it’s a daunting one for an Arsenal team still learning to play under the new manager.

To make matters worse we have a defensive crisis and it’s our defence which has been the most worrying aspect of our game so far this season. It looks like we’ll be without Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis Papastathopoulos while Laurent Koscielny still hasn’t kicked a ball this season. It means we are likely to see a back four of Stephan Lichsteiner, Rob Holding, Shkodran Mustafi and one other who might have to be Granit Xhaka.

Despite his shortcomings I think Xhaka is an important part of our midfield and we clearly missed him in midfield against Palace last week. He did reasonably well at left back until Wilfried Zaha suckered him into conceding a penalty which a more experienced defender might not have given away even if Zaha “made the most of it.” I suppose you could scratch that comment about a more experienced defender when you consider the penalty Mustafi gave away earlier in the game.

Anyway if Xhaka has to play in defence it would probably mean Mohamed Elneny would play in midfield with Matteo Guendouzi suspended after his red card in midweek and again he’s a player who doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. He’ll do a good job and give his all if he plays, but we’re not as good with him in the team.

Also having Xhaka at left back severely hampers our attacking capabilities on that side as it’s just not natural for him to play there in a fashion similar to Monreal or Kolasinac. I suppose Carl Jenkinson or Ainsley Maitland-Niles could play, but I think it would be a huge risk to start either of them and I think Xhaka will probably get the nod in that position.

So many of our goals so far this season have come from players in and around the penalty spot after that ball has been cut back to them and we lose that part of our game on the left without Monreal or Kolasinac. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in great scoring form at the moment we need to make chances for him as he seems unable to miss right now. His last six attempts on target have all ended up in the back of the net and I would be very surprised to see him on the bench as he has been a few times recently. I know his pace off the bench when the opposition are tired is great, but that pace could be crucial if Liverpool try to press us today. I have no doubt they will try to press our defenders into mistakes and it’s a tactic which could work with us trying to play the ball out, but it could also open the way for Aubameyang to get in behind them. 

In possession much will be expected of Mesut Ozil and we need him to be at his best today. He can be the difference against any team when he’s at his best, but getting him on the ball in positions where he can make that difference won’t be easy. We most certainly have the attacking players who can get us the goals we need with only City scoring more goals after 10 games, but our attack might not be what makes the difference today.

Liverpool haven’t exactly set the world alight this season, but they are only behind City on goal difference after eight wins and two draws from their 10 games. I think they have become more pragmatic in their approach because a stronger defence means they don’t have to score a shed load of goals to win games. They might not be as free scoring as they were last season, but they have only conceded four goals in their 10 games.

If it comes down to a battle of who has the better defence then we are in trouble, but home advantage is hard to estimate. We lost our opening home game against City, but we have won all four home games since then and we won 15 of our 19 home games last season. Let’s just hope we can make that home advantage count today and come out with a positive result.

I think anything other than a defeat would be a positive result for us, but of course a win would be ideal. If the pkayers can put in a performance to give the fans hope I’m sure those fans will get behind them and do all they can to pressurise Liverpool and the referee too. Liverpool are very fond of their tactical fouling to stop opponents breaking and we cannot let them get away with it today. The players and crowd have to get on the referee’s back to make sure they are appropriately punished every single time they do it.

Our goal for the season has to be a top four finish and maybe some silverware in a cup competition and a win today would be a big step towards a top four finish. We have struggled badly against the rest of the top six for too many seasons and we need to start getting results off them soon. The manager got a pass for the first two games of the season, but he will be judged more harshly if he gets it wrong today. I’m not exactly overly confident of getting anything from the game, but I think we are capable of doing so and I really hope for the sake of confidence and progress we can do it.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.