Arsenal are on a fantastic run of 13 games unbeaten since our opening defeats to Man City and Chelsea, but Liverpool have an even better record in the League, with 8 wins and two draws (against Man City and Chelsea) so far and are certain to be formidable opponents.
The Reds keeper Alisson Becker believes that Liverpool have to beat Arsenal to prove that they have the credentials to go on and win the Premier League title this season. He said: “It’s definitely going to be a great game and we shouldn’t fear anybody,”
“We’re confident in our quality. We appreciate the quality of the opposition but we can’t show any fear on the pitch, we need to be brave, we need to do our best to play our best football and play the way Klopp wants us to on the pitch. It’ll definitely be a great contest.
“A team with intentions of winning the Premier League needs to be winning this type of game so we’re going there with victory in mind, while keeping our feet on the ground and knowing we’ll need to give sweat, blood and tears to win the game.”
So, conversely the same thing is true for Arsenal, if we want to be taken seriously as contenders for the title, then we should be beating the big teams like Liverpool at home. This is certainly going to be a big test, and if we take a win today then we will be just one point behind our opponents and definitely in the title race. I am sure Emery will have his team tactically and mentally fired up to do the business. COYG!
Onwards and Upwards!
Admin
COYG!!!
This one makes me nervous, it is going to be a real test of where we are this season. The left back postion looks shaky at the moment with the amount of injuries we have and xhaka likely to get murdered by the Liverpool wingers and forwards.
If we take a point I would be satisfied, all 3 points would be amazing.
Goyg
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Maitland-Niles is fit, therefore Xhaka would most likely play as a deep lying playmaker again
I believe Maitland-Niles can stop Salah if he is supported by our LW, but not so sure about Bellerin and our RW
I also agree with the author that whoever wins today are a title challenger
I would rather put Maitland-Niles at CM because he can escape a press with his dribbling and can also drive the team forward like a real box to box player.Playing Xhaka and Torreira holds back the full attacking potential of the team.Its like having two DM’s though Xhaka is a DLP.Both are too defensive in the way they play.We need a box to box player.Someone who can drive the team forward.I for one think there are times where Torreira even does what Xhaka is supposed to do if you watch them both very well.
I would rather put a rock at left back than have xhaka play there. At the very least the rock won’t concede a pen.
It doesn’t take Einstein to work out Liverpool are title challengers
It’s more of how we play if we win or lose than actually beating them that should tell us where we are this season.If we win 1-0 or with a close scoreline and rely on luck like we have been and win undeservedly then I don’t see why this team should be taken seriously as a contender this season.This is because it shows that the team is not ready.However,if we play very well and we end up with an undeserved loss this will tell me the team is ready.Without factoring in how we play today win or lose against Liverpool today we will not be able to know if this team is a real contender.I want to see us go to to toe with them and not be defensive like a small team.
Yes, we need to be beating the likes of Liverpool and the other big teams but we also need to make sure we don’t loose to teams like Palace either!
I’m hoping for a good game today and will support Arsenal, win, loose or draw.
Yes I will too, I’ll just either be buzzing or distraught
We win today 4_1
No Liverpool are but we still have a lot to do.
l’d love to say we are but being honest we still lack togetherness and steel thro out the team.
l think that will come but its not there yet L’pool tho i dont like it are the better team for now but even if we win id still put them and City 5-10 pts ahead of our progress.
Liverpool are not and if the media wasn’t so stacked with Liverpool fans it wouldn’t be a question. Spurs have been far more consistent and good in recent years and no one is mentioning them, whilst Chelsea actually won it twice in the previous 4 but are “surprise challengers” to Liverpool lol. No one is close to City they recruited well, younger players are older and no one is in full decline.
Admin.. Where is my post?
I have no idea! Have you asked the postman?
Liverpool are chasing the title, Arsenal are chasing the top 4 position. I am okay with this situation right now as this is where we are.
As long as we get a performance I am happy for them. results take care of themselves. But performances against the top teams has been the issue of late.
City and Chelsea was too soon to see the unai effect. This game it seems maybe injuries might be the issue But that’s football – so is it time to see how good unia is?
Ok-while I accept Emery will need to be judged at some time in the future I do not accept it should be on the outcome of the game today.Lets remember he has inherited a defence that still can’t defend.There is only so much any coach can do with a player and if the ability is not there then you can only expect so much.
The tactics will play just as bigger part in this game as the line-up.And waking players up before half time would help
Hey it seems like Wenger bought or referred 30 yr old socrates or35 year old lich. Or told them to retain mustafi and an injury prone kos. If emery knew we have a defencive problem why did not he fix it? Always blaming wenger for everything as much as i dislike wenger dont go for the overkill emery is also guilty of cheap fix.Fact!
Don’t you believe it may have had something to do with the fact we had only a very limited transfer budget for him to work with?Sokritis was bought as a stop gap and has not let us down at all.We had no other right back other than Bellerin so needed cover which is why Lichstiener was bought.Leno it goes without saying.Torreira was a player we have been desperate for and not a player Wenger would have bought.Guendonzi will be a top player and was bought for the future.
Everyone else is a Wenger player.Mustafi £35m.Xhaka £35m.And still some fans are confused why Wenger was SACKED.
Emery has done a very good job so far with what he had to work with so please don’t start blaming him and excusing Wenger for slowly running the Club into the ground.
Phil, Oh BLISS ! reading your so true post reassures me that the WHOLE football world has not gone mad, after all. I don’t know what red and white was getting at in his post. Seems to me perhaps he thought Emery should put all the last decades defensive ills right almost overnight by spending the few crumbs he was allowed. He HAS spent it wisely, BUT you cannot throw ALL the Wenger defensive duds away in one summer. Unless he proposes to play eight man teams, which he obviously does not. As realists you, me and many others on here know very well that no one is a miracle worker and that even God Almighty could not make that mess of a defender named Mustafi do the job he is paid to do. And do it properly too! That Wenger chose to pay £35 million for him is deeply upsetting to us who remember the fabulous George Graham defence.
Gentlemen, my only question is why emery kept mustafi and not chuck him out.And why 30 yr old socrates for 16 million.And kos is out till jan.Could he not fix it better? Agree torerra is a good buy and i too wanted wenger out after our FA cup.
A simple answer; Scrooge Kroenke and the need to play eleven men in games. Nothing would please almost ALL Gooners more than to ditch the dreadful Mustafi but EMERY had financial crumbs only allowed to spend, plus no fit and Prem experienced CB’S at all left when he came, Mustafi apart. yOU CANNOT CALL HOLDING, CHAMBERS or MAVROP experienced at the time. For peanuts you CANNOT buy the VVD’s of this world. HENCE SOKRATIS CAME , who though not a star, is still better by far then Mustafi. Emery also badly needed RB cover and a proper DM, ALL OUT OF PEANUTS. You are being unrealistic in expecting vast improvements in WENGERS DREADFUL DEFENCE ON MERE PEANUTS AND IN A FEW WEEKS. Phil and I were, even if forcefully , pointing out this clear truth, since it NEEDED pointing out, sadly.
You guys are so delusional it’s not even funny. Mustafi is OUR BEST DEFENDER BY A MILE. Name one thing Sokratis does better (hint nothing) or explain why EMERY DOES NOT EVERY DROP MUSTAFI FOR SOKRATIS in tier 1 games. So frustrating people that have no critical thinking skills.
Angus, you have serious judgement problems if you honestly think Mustafi is as you write. By any standards THAT is a bizarre opinion. You must be very young with no personal knowledge of top Arsenal defenders of the George Graham and early WENGER YEARS, TO WRITE THIS TOSH! HE IS CONSTANTLY MAKING RASH MISTAKES, CAN YOU NOT SEE THEM?
Are suggesting Emery needs sacked? Mustafi has started every game Holding/Sokratis have both been fit for most of that.
There is a way champions or real contenders play even if they are losing.Even if we lose we must factor in the way the team plays.If we play like real contenders or champions then we can achieve success this season.
When Spurs lose to Man City and Liverpool, they don’t lose their top four credentials but Arsenal have to beat Liverpool to get top four credentials. Double standards.
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Even if we win which I believe we will I don’t think our team is good enough to win the title, on our day we can beat anyone but over the course of the season with Mustafi Ramsey etc it’s just not possible.. I’ll take 4th place now and the Europa League.. kroenke needs to release some serious funds if we are to challenge can’t be cheap skates and think you can win the premier League
It might be a great thing that fans are still talking about us perhaps being title contenders, it also might be a sign of the success the manager has had in terms of results. On the other hand, it could be a bad thing as well. Are these expectations realistic?
IMO we should not expect or talk about winning the title. Unrealistic expectations tend to lead negative energy around the club when reality sets in. I think it is already amazing that we have a chance for a top 4 finish (at the moment) in the first year after Wenger. It would not have been unreasonable to expect a few steps back after Wenger left but instead, we are far superior to last year in terms of effort, tactic and substitutions despite still having to work with sub top 4 defenders (as a group) and despite still having to still undo years of bad habits when it comes to defending.
I don’t expect us to win against Liverpool but I look forward to the game and I could not have said that last season for the same fixture. We are improving, we are excited to watch, we have a chance for a top 4 finish but there would be no shame in it if Liverpool and City are at this stage in our transition a step too far. Having said that in 1 game anything can happen.
I think this is an eminently sensible comment. We know the purse strings were tight in the Summer and Emery has so far done a very competent job without resorting to vague excuses when things haven’t quite worked. From Summer to date we have without doubt seen progress. There will be knock-backs, but overall we do appear to be moving forward.
What sound sense you write. I loved your sound sense of perspective and rationality.
We should not expect the title because of the budget we have since the day we last won the title. The idea its a poor defence left by a defective manager is so dumb. The new regime bought Sokratis/Mavropanos/Lichtsteiner/Leno and gave new contracts to Holding/Chambers/Maitland and you think the defensive unit isn’t theirs? On top of that they really want to keep Monreal. Bellerin is tied down until 2023 so they’d of sold him if they didn’t want him (by far our highest priced defender btw.) Swear to god some people don’t understand what the words perspective and rationality actually mean.
Just for perspective City paid over Mustafi’s price for Stones, Laporte, Mangala, Otamendi whilst even Nastasic was 21 mil in 2014/2015 season eventually they ended up with a quality cb pairing……. wonder how that happened. Liverpool paid 75+ mil for Van Dijk. United paid 34 ml for Bailiy AND 31.5 mil for Lindelof nevermind the likes of Jones cost 17 mil + incentives in 2011 which is obviously way more than Mustafi cost and we have no one else clost to Mustafi at CB in the past decade is that budget?
Most of you just don’t understand how much the market inflated. Mustafi was not expensive neither was Xhaka they were the 3rd tier of pricing at best. It’s so infuriating tbh. None of you spend anytime paying attention to market rates or watching our opposition outside big games to form your opinions. Investment is our issue it will remain our issue going forward although as I’ve said elsewhere Emery is probably a better man for the role than Wenger.
YOUR ONLY SENSIBLE POINT WAS YOUR FINAL SENTENCE.
Even if we beat Liverpool they will still real contenders the season is long to go and i see no logic of excluding anybody yet even Spurs and Watford still have a chance if things turned upside down .
Hopefully Mustafis stops his comic shows at least for tonight for god sake .
We are going to get smashed lol ? let’s be honest we needed players and he never got what we needed. Time to spend big
hate the title!!! title challengers we just spoke about that in previous forums, we are way off please as a writer don’t feed fans false hope, if we beat them today 10-0 we are still way off, manage expectations please, you owe it to the fans if you are writing an article!!
Sal you are so right. But depressingly, though the Admin is personally a bright man, his headlines are, deliberately, way off the mark more often than not. Designed to stimulate debate but in a Punch and Judy style , rather than attracting more posts with perspective and realism. So many debate forums in all walks of life only wish to attract arguments which are poles apart. The BBC too is a good example of this lazy journalism, much of the time. What they so often fear is a degree of mass consensus, so don’t promote their articles in that manner, with moderate headlines.
Whoever plays at full back must be reminded that they are defenders first before they think of bombing forward.To do so against Mane and Salah would be a big mistake and could cost us dearly.That said Liverpool are far from invincible and do not have much in the way of creativity in midfield.What they have is plenty of energy and that is the area where we must match them today.
Spot On!