After a win in the North London derby last weekend, it’s another big game at home, except this time against a big side like visiting Liverpool.
Their start to the season has been poor by their standards, but as Phil pointed out on the preview podcast, they’ve only lost one Premier League game in 2022, and that was against Man Utd, who also beat us by fluke. The remarkable stat that they have conceded the first goal in 9 of their last 11 games should give an in-form Arsenal some hope, but it is no coincidence that they have been challenging for the title every season of late.
They may not be exactly what they were, but they’re still a terrific team that won’t do what they did last weekend and just sit back. They will come to play, and we know from bitter experience how dangerous they are as a strike force. The goal threat they possess will surely have been part of Mikel Arteta’s preparation for this one, and anything less than his best today will make it difficult to get the kind of result we want.
But, if Liverpool is not what it was, the same goes for Arsenal. For the first time in a long time I enter this game without thinking that the outcome is inevitable. I had some pre-game texts with Mugsmasher himself, and he says he’s not feeling optimistic. Which, when you consider the recent results against Liverpool, he says something about them, but also how they see us.
There is no doubt that there has been progress, which is measured first and foremost by league standings. After that you look at the top teams and see if you can be competitive against them, and Liverpool are one of those teams. In the league last season we lost 4-0 at Anfield and 2-0 at home. After that game at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta pointed out that the difference between the teams was what they were capable of doing up front:
These games are won on the squares and that was the critical difference today to get nothing out of this game sadly.
Alexandre Lacazette huffed and puffed for 80 minutes of that game; Gabriel Jesús is a different proposal for the Liverpool defense. Not just because he’s better as an individual, but because he’s also better for the collective. However, there was a difference between 4-0 and 2-0, and today is another opportunity to show that the gap is closer again. Arteta says:
It’s a game that everyone is looking for, against a rival that has shown the level it has in the last five or six years. And we have to show those opponents again that we have reached the level and we are ready to compete against them.
It’s a bit of a marker. If we get a big win, like we did a couple of years ago during lockdown, I’ll be absolutely thrilled, but I’m very interested to see if we can go toe-to-toe with one of the top teams. It’s a bit like the match against Man City on New Year’s Day, where the result didn’t go the way we wanted, but the performance told you that something was going on with this team. On the heels of a loss, it’s hard to rationalize that, but look at where we are now, and it makes more sense.
As for today’s squad, I don’t expect anything different from the derby, except maybe Kieran Tierney starts ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who was not in the squad midweek and could well be absent. It could have been a precaution, of course, but either way, I’m pretty happy with our options at left back.
I don’t think for a second that the coach let anyone get carried away by recent form or last weekend’s win. Our progress as a team has been based on hard work and remembering that we still have a long way to go to get where we want to go. However, confidence and drive are things we can and should use going into this one. It will be extremely difficult, but Liverpool no longer looks like a mountain we can’t climb, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can get to the top later on.
Right, we’ll have the live blog for you as usual, plus post-game stuff on Arseblog News. In the meantime, the preview podcast is available on Patreon. For now, take it easy and I’ll find you later for the game.
Come on Reds!
