The pundit Jamie Carragher is often much-maligned by Arsenal fans for his pro-Liverpool bias, but just for a change he is not predicting an easy win for his old team at the Emirates next week. The Gunners had a very satisfying 4-1 destruction of the Scousers at home last season, and although Liverpool are yet to concede a goal in this campaign Carragher thinks this will be a crunch game for their defence.
“The problem last season, equally with the lack of goals, was conceding too much,” he said on SkySports. “And now they’ve got two clean sheets on the bounce.
“Sometimes you can keep a clean sheet but your ‘keeper has made great saves or you’ve been fortunate, but they haven’t given away any chances away in two games.
“That’s the thing to build on. The goals will come, for sure, as players get fitter and stronger.
“But the acid test will come away at Arsenal next week considering what happened there last season.
“It will be a test for the back four next week but if they can come through that, then that will give them confidence that they have more organisation, and that can help massively.”
There is no doubt that it will also be a big test of Arsenal’s title credentials as well, as defeat cannot be considered especially after our last game at the Emirates, but how satisfying would it be to get a repeat of last season’s score?