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Confirmed Arsenal Team to take on Liverpool at Anfield this afternoon

The teams are out for today’s Premier League clash between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield, with the Gunners arriving in top form.

Mikel Arteta’s side are on the back of a 10-game unbeaten run, while their rivals have failed to win either of their last two in the league, but the international break may well have diluted the impetus of that form.

Both sides also have a number of players that are not at 100% for the tie, while there had been question marks over a number of players’ involvement today, but thankfully we have at least had some good news with both Thomas Partey and Aubameyang returning in time to start.

This line-up should give us every chance of getting a result today, although I don’t think anybody would be expecting Aaron Ramsdale to get an easy time of it in goal against one of the quickest attack in world football, but we have all the tools to make things difficult for them today.

Patrick

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181 Comments

  2. I believe that we can beat them or pull off a draw at Anfield. I will accept a scrappy win or whatever. It’s OK as long as we don’t lose. We need a good result here to help overcome that mental barrier we have when playing them. Liverpool are playing low how they did in 19/20 where they go all guns blazing but susceptible to conceding naive goals as has been seen. If we chicken out we will be beat. We need to brave and go for it. This result can have a ripple effect.

    1. Yes. But I don’t like humiliating defeat.

      I want Liverpool to have a hard fought victory if they must win. I don’t want a man City kind of defeat any more.

      Arsenal is a big team

  5. Mane would likely perform his tricks again to get free kicks and penalties, so hopefully Tomiyasu is fully prepared

    I’d prefer Maitland-Niles, since he is more familiar with Mane’s playing style and Liverpool don’t play with a tall CF. But maybe Arteta wants more tall players to defend in set-pieces

    1. But over the years Mane has caused lot of problems to our RB irrespective of any player as RB
      Bellerin, AMN, Chambers all faced lot of problems because of Mane so I don’t think it would be any better if we play AMN as RB

            1. And GAI how about Salah be Tavares??
              And I am sure Aubameyang will struggle against Matip VVD
              I would have like to see Lacazzett up front and Odegaard behind him

        2. I don’t see Mane’s dribbling as *the* big threat – it’s more his movement off the ball and intelligence. He helps connect their attacks and is great at getting on the end of passes and crosses.
          An on form AMN could handle him individually, but I think Tomi is a more rounded defender with much better defensive instincts, and that’s what is needed here

          1. Mane’s dirty tricks are the biggest threats. Look what he’s done to us and he managed to avoid yellow card

  6. Glad to see Thomas Partey in the line up.

    Auba is a waste of space in big games. He doesn’t have what it takes to upset any defence.

    I hope Arteta doesn’t starts him.

  7. Our best team, but I would take a draw now!!
    We are not a top 4 team right now, but a solid challenger to that 4th position. If we lose, let it be a fairly even game…
    Out of all the results this season the lost to man city was one to forget, because of the capitulation, we should not be 5 goals worse than any team in the league….

  8. Personally I’m more about the performance today than the result.

    1.Can we trade punches with them
    2.how dangerous are we in attack
    3. How we handle their press
    4. How well we defend against a top attack

    For me I’m looking at how we have progressed as a team, and how we approach a top team.
    Will we attack or park the bus?
    What tactics Arteta uses for the match.
    Will Arteta settle for a draw or go for 3 points?

  9. With the result atm even if we lose we are still in 5th, that’s why Watford win was so important, it took pressure off us totally.
    Am supporting the team all the way, win draw or lose

    1. Because at the moment Arteta has got his winning team and formula so he will stick with that till he is getting results

  11. I just want a good game. Pool are a good side and we must be on top of our game to get anything from this contest. COYG

  12. I think it is too early to start Partey in this high profile game. imo, he is just returning from injury.
    Would have rather he was on the bench. we need him fit for the season. We cant afford long term injuries to key players

    1. We need Ole to be at Man United till the end of the season. They are doing a promo presently.

      Promo!Promo!!Promo!!!
      Play Manchester United and get 3 points free. Offer last till the end of the season.

  16. Just seen the line ups and this would be the best result for many years if we were to get at least a draw.
    Also please please please stop posting on here utter rubbish like mane wont play and that sort of stuff ot really is total crap and has no place on here when all you do is make stuff up
    COYG 2-2

  19. Good to see Tavares keep his place ahead of Tierney ,he offers something different and as better recovery pace than Teirney who struggles with pacey wingers as past performances have shown .
    COYG

    1. But Dan I believe Tierney is better player that Tavares.
      Tavares is good and playing well too but Tierney is better in all round performance

      1. Nope kedar..we just love Tierney’s attitude and fighting spirit but on the pitch tavares is a different class…not many teams have two footed leftbacks or talk strong rightbacks….we are blessed with so many potential future stars in all positions

      2. I’m not saying he’s better Kedar just that he offers something different and he’s been brilliant in Tierneys absence so deserves his starting spot ,and like I said tierney as struggled in the past against salah ,last seasons game my case in point where he looked awful up against salah

  20. Wanted to see AMN in midfield instead Sambi and Martinelli instead of Auba.

    Laca and Auba has not been consistent together.

    Let’s go!

  21. I didn’t expect a guaranteed 5th place this weekend … let’s get 4th despite my prediction that it will be draw

  22. This squad have been together 2 or 3 months.
    Liverpool have been together for 4+ years.

    So, it’s more realistic to evaluate the performance then the result!

    Our results haven’t necessarily = our performances but we are getting better, hopefully today is another step.

    A draw isn’t a bad result considering West Ham Man U lost!

    1. Yes I don’t think it’s fair to expect much in terms of points in this game – hope but don’t expect. Agree the performance is much more important here.

  26. I dont like maitland niles on the bench. Best decision to make him want out. He performed ao well last game. He is 24, hale end product. And see a 21 years old jump straight ahead of him while not playing better or that much better. If you are maitland niles, would you want to stay ? He has only 1,5 years left of contract…

    1. Just different types of players. If AMN keeps up his good recent form, he could form a very strong partnership with Lokonga over the next few years – their playing styles are complimentary

  28. When is Saka going to become a player of consequence again?? he’s too indecisive on the ball and his movement lacks a real sense of purpose, far too often, at both ends of the pitch…other than that I like the lineup on the pitch today, especially with Nuno retaining the LB gig…the only real question today for me was Lokonga or AMN…happy that MA went with the more adventurous option…like Durand spoke earlier about, the performance matters infinitely more than the final result…the nuanced aspects of this game will be the ultimate measuring stick regarding our progression…right now, we’re relying a little too much on Ramsdale for my liking

  29. poor special teams setup…how can we be outmanned in the most obvious target zone for the cross

  30. Arsenal didn’t dare to press Alisson, probably because of Alisson’s excellent ball playing ability and Aubameyang’s stamina. Arteta’s counter-attack tactic didn’t work, so I believe he’ll change it in the second half

    1. I don’t Allison is good under pressure…
      Remember his mistakes against City and Leicester last year and before
      He can make mistakes under pressure

      1. Unfortunately, Aubameyang would’ve got too tired if he pressed Alisson frequently in the first half. We really need to rejuvenate our CFs, so we can press like Brighton

  31. No surprise to see Mane – that dirty sod – score. I’m really disappointed we’ve let one in…
    We’re still in this… come on!!!

    1. Mane should’ve been yellow-carded for that elbow against Tomiyasu. He was lucky the referee’s judgement got affected by Liverpool’s supporters

      1. He’s always been a dirty sod, gai, I can’t stand him. Gets away with so much. Well, MA is certainly fired up, let’s hope we come out all gun’s blazin and silence that bloody lot

        1. I can’t stand him either Sue. His dirty tricks are always one of Liverpool’s biggest weapons in their games

      3. enough with the old school Wengerian referee excuse banter…we haven’t been aggressive enough going forward…you can’t half-commit when you’re deploying a counter-attacking philosophy

        1. Arsenal should’ve pressed Alisson, but Arteta must have a good reason for not doing it. I bet he’ll change it later

          1. I used to think there were only two things definite in life, death and taxes. I’m beginning to think there’s actually three. The third is us getting ripped apart by Liverpool.

  32. Finally Liverpool vs arsenal has a big game feel to it…. previously we would have been battered by now

    Obviously the only threat I feared led to their goal, which is Trent pinpoint crosses…

    Partey is obviously unfit same with ESR…AMN needs to come in for Partey…

    I love how we dealt with the long diagonals to salah and the surging runs of mane….

    The Liverpool team quite cautious too pushing fullbacks forward which shows how far we have come, if only saka had been decisive in the final third, we probably have a goal as well

    This team will go places…

  33. A little nervous today? Saka is not being effective, and Liverpool stifling ESR at the other flank. I thought we could have scored from one of those breaks, but we are not yet the perfectly recoiled spring (Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid in 2012 comes to mind!). That said Liverpool does look vulnerable, we might be able to get a result. Ramsdale with those saves surely has endeared himself to fans even more. Hope someone takes care of Mane, his cynical smile fouling our players irritates me always, would like to see him shitting his pants with someone staring down at him as Holding did…
    Best of luck lads for the second half!!

          1. Yep! Other teams have shown Pool are there for the taking, we show up – normal service resumed! Probably be the same when we go to Manchester in a couple of weeks!!

  39. Nervous and completely unorganised best describes this Arsenal performance. This is back to the drawing board football. No control and just as well we have a decent keeper!

  40. I feel for Nuno, as that’s the first time he’s f***ed up since he’s arrived…sub makes no sense in a 2-0 affair unless MA’s looking to release Partey farther up the pitch, which would mean a significant tactical change…likely done to protect from the game getting out of hand, which would be a gutless maneuver if that is the case

  41. Business as normal against pool at anfield then!

    Who said they thought we’d draw!?

    Naive pool at their patch are fierce and were the young pretenders who have been doing surprisingly well seeing that our team is full of new signings who’ve hit the ground running.

    Didn’t see us getting anything today just need to keep the score down now.

    1. @the real viera

      ‘Gutless manoeuvre?’

      The goal difference come the end of the season may be keep for top 4 and revenue.

      No point going all guns now and getting 5 or 6 put past us!

      1. based on our start to the season there’s little chance that we’re going to win any goal differential tiebreaker anyways…it’s time to show some balls

  43. We have made mistakes leading to goals and we are against the championship winning team last year. Liverpool are miles ahead of us, we are an inexperinced team learning as we go along.

    Showed too much respect to Liverpool and have lost confidence. Auba, Laca, Lokonga, Tavares, Tomi & the 2 youngsters on the wings have been all off today. Tactics were to with stands liverpools attack and counter but failed to do that.

    We move on and hope this just stays at 2-0 or we can get a late comeback who knows

  45. Take out partey for godsake..the guy is hiding from passes which has limited passing options for our defence….he didn’t even attempt to chase jota…

    Tavares , Tomiyasu , Amn can’t pass out of the back comfortably and are getting pressed…

    Put odegaard and balance the game….
    Yes we are losing but can’t make it seem easy for Liverpool

  46. @sue and kedah

    Yes klopp is so co*Ky and unlikeable.

    Even the way he talks to pundits is arrogant now.

    I’ll never forgive him for having a go at Des of BT sport, rude man!

    1. childish homer banter…I would give me left nut to see a manager of his ilk patrolling our sidelines

  50. why would it make any sense to bring in Ode for Laca…his contract assurances must be the deciding factor, as he provides nothing defensively…why not bring in Marts to get a run tucked in behind Auba, as he has far more energy and pace than Ode

  52. To much impetus on our defending which looks good until it doesn’t.
    To top it off Arteta does his usual by bringing off Laca to replace him with Odegaard,that’s just a like for like replacement.
    I wanna see us go at them not just holding up the play with nothing to show for it .
    Liverpool we’re there to be got at today but we showed them to much respect,same old same old for me I’m afraid ,football is about scoring goals something we’ve lacked all season .

    2. so true DK, another Anfield “horror show”…what a positional mess…what exactly were our tactics today, to pretend we were going to have an offensive presence, based on MA’s selections, then never fully commit to that notion even when countering…so if that was the case, why not start a more defensive squad instead of maintaining this obvious façade…I personally think Arteta poked the sleeping bear when he went all ape-sh** in the first-half

  53. Another horror show! Brighton played a stronger Liverpool team and played them off the park in 2nd half.. we as usual getting rolled over easily so sick of these crappy performances!

    1. Really pi$$ed off, Kev. Same old, same old. I’ve seen more than enough – the darts is now on!!
      Free for all now…. FFS

      1. Absolute rubbish! Complete amateurs with amateur coaching! Yeah too right Sue just watching that would make any Arsenal fans blood boil!

          1. I’d rather buy a ticket for the antiques roadshow Sue! I wouldn’t pay a fiver to watch Arteta ball.. score a goal and then pretend his team can actually defend! Warning signs were there after Watford.

              1. Bummer Sue 😆 well what a miserable Saturday night this is going to be! I would stay off any football related media and avoid motd 🤪

    2. I agree with you. I also wish Saka should be on the bench for now. Martinelli should start ahead of Aubameyang. I like the way Pep changes his front3. You have to earn your place. No room for complacency.

      Saka was poor today.

      1. Yeah he’s been awful! And Auba since his new contract has been shockingly bad! I’ve been saying for a long time we need a new forward line… Laca and Auba don’t strike fear into anyone. On today’s performance we need a new everything!

        1. i would rather we sign Raheem Sterling and play Martinelli and Balogun as strikers. We need goals from the front 3. if we have any chance to sell Aubameyang in January, we should not hesitate.

          Give Lacazette a 2 year deal. Sell Aubameyang

          1. 💯 with you there.. I’d rather keep Laca as he contributes a lot more than Auba who contributes very little, massive mistake gifting him that big contract but I can see why it was given! Unfortunately for us it’s turning out to be another expensive mistake..

  54. It was dead certain that we would lose, but why in such a manner every time 🤬. Sure, we remain 5th,but it doesn’t change the fact that we roll over

  59. Didn’t think I would say this but wat an embarrassing show. Please ffs kick aubameyang out of the club wat a coward in the big games but I’m sure to be slated for my comment

  60. This Anfield voodoo is actually disgusting… No matter how good or bad we play, we always always a whopping… It’s not painful it’s just infuriating… H2H recently be damning

  62. LOOOOL

    Took us 12 games to get to neutral GD. And now its back to below zeeroooooo

    Beautiful capitulation by Arteta. He did it with Chelsea, City and now Pool. Against them:

    Points: 0
    Goals for: 0
    Goals against 12

  64. Omg how bad is this
    Is it arteta’s fault
    Can we get better
    We need more than this
    Embarrassing, shocking, and absolutely awful
    The arsenal players have cheated us today and should be ashamed of they performance or lack of it

  65. I don’t really know what odegard brings to this arsenal team, the players are too lazy, I would have being in martinelli for smithrow in the second half

  66. We fear Liverpool and that’s why we always loose against them..
    No matter how in form we are, we always loose against them because we fear them

  67. So, we can conclude that MCI, CHE and LIV are going to score 4 or 5 everytime we face them, regardless of where we play. What kind of vision is that?

    1. Yes expect 5-0, 5-1, 6-0 every time we play those top teams. Is embarrassing being an arsenal fan at the moment. We are a joke. Top teams know 3 easy points every time they play us.

      1. That ain’t entirely true….only 3 teams can boast of certain 3 points against us currently….. remember we lost to Liverpool and city away from home which shouldn’t be surprising…

  68. Why all the negativity we were undefeated in 10 before today woth amazing stats and some exciting young new players, for the first time in a long time I can say I’m quietly excited for the future.
    So we lost to Liverpool no surprise they are ahead of us in development at comparing to Brighton etc is not realistic as the pool players will have got up for a game against arsenal more than they’d expect a hard game v Brighton.

    #glass half full

    2. Spot keiron…I used to be very vocal with arteta out early season but with all I have seen recently, I am very optimistic about the future… lesson learnt by our new players and I expect revenge come the second leg…

      We lost the game due to our lightweight midfield….

      A lot of work still needs to be done about our usual poor second half of games….

  69. The fact is, we had no control in the game today against a very good Liverpool. There is still so much work to do. I just wish we could have been braver with more energy and belief. Tavares has been given a lesson today. If not for our keeper we actually be fighting relegation still. We all made the mistake of believing MA had turned things round but this performance shows our gulf still.

  70. For the life of me I don’t know why we are always scared of Liverpool. It’s annoying how other teams put up a fight here and we just rollover to be screwed.

  71. Ive said it before we need to put bigger focus on martenilli balogun. Think for a minute whether they would have done worst than Auba. How would they have made the team if they were I. The line up. They need time opportunities minutes and they are not getting them. Could you do any worse. They are the future!!!

  73. A bad day
    Difficult to watch as be fully focused when looking after small grandchildren. Should have watched Finding Nemo instead
    A gulf in class and I don’t think it matters how Brighton did against Liverpool. It’s game by game and results almost across the board today brought surprises.
    Top4 is up for grabs on the basis of today’s showings.
    Top3 is sorted

  74. Our midfielder were horrendous today plus senior players needed to calm the younger players down but auba is not captain material.Anyone remember how Fabregas used to do it particularly in that game against Barcelona

    1. Honestly, we have to invest in January.

      My wish list for Janaury

      Out
      Aubameyang
      Nketiah
      Elneny
      Kolasinac

      In
      Raheem Sterling(He is what we need on the Left side of attack)
      Bissouma

      1. Completely agree, the defence really stood against the Liverpool attackers, a few mistakes and weak midfield let us down, the team is a work in progress, that’s why am happy the coach didn’t ask them to hide away, they went out to measure their ability and they will all leave without regret, hopefully they learn from it and grow

  77. If anyone can find an excuse for that… then you’re a better person than me. What a complete shambles.

    Gutted🥺

    1. You can’t compare the mentality of Liverpool players when meeting westharm or Brighton to when meeting arsenal or Utd, it’s in the culture no matter how both teams has fallen they were once giants competing in the past, and in those years when Liverpool were really struggling, both teams were really beating them, so table turned

  80. It was a brave performance from the boys.
    No negativity from me, am a happy gunner today despite the loss, our boys gave their best, their best wasn’t enough but it was a good performance imo

    2. Sarcasm I hope.

      Listening to this dick Souness…. is making me feel like pulling my own skin off.

      We better learn from this as beating the norm is not going to cut it for me.

      1. It’s my opinion, am not been carried away by our 20 match unbeaten run, we lost 4 games in the season already 3 of those against the 3 best teams in England and Europe.
        If you think we are good enough to compete fairly against Liverpool you need to go and see their performance against the beat teams in the world this season, e.g ATM , utd etc, if you think because they had a bad game against west harm we could have beaten them too, I’ll remind you westharm just got beaten by wolves and any good team could have a bad day but it doesn’t happen often

    4. Lessons learnt by our young squad..not yet the finished article…

      A strong ruthless striker with good holdup play is really needed, just like Chelsea did with lukaku……it’s vlahovic for me, now I understand why arteta wanted Abraham..

      Unto the next game… ..losses so far.. Brentford away,
      ManCity away,
      Liverpool away,
      Chelsea home……
      not bad for a young team in transition

  81. Someone said it earlier Liverpool are one of the top teams in world right now so it would have been down to luck or them not being up for the game for us to get any kind of result. We are still 3/4 players away from challenging. We have for so many years been a few players away from the top teams. I was encouraged by some of our play today, some of our fight but I hope we do something about it in the summer.

  83. Not mad losing against Liverpool away to Anfield but our boys really need to learn what offsides is. Constantly off today and another goal ruled offsides again. We were outclassed but staying onside would have caused them more problems. Salah and Mane will petty foul defenders all game with those 50/50 chance calls but constantly look to go down when they’re caught on the ball. Has to be as frustrating to defend against as it is to watch

    1. Especially Auba, he is more experienced than that, our midfield disappoints us today, the better team with better players win.
      No shame in that, we are 5th, we pick up again, I can accept this but against Everton, Utd Newcastle we need to give a good account of ourself

  84. This Liverpool love in makes me sick…

    I need Sane here so I can boot him in the air… horrible, nasty player.

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