Premier League: Arsenal and Liverpool target season-defining result as season run-in starts now

THE second half of the Premier League season is now in full swing and with it, the number of season-defining matches. Fast on the heels of Liverpool’s impressive midweek victory over Chelsea at Anfield, the Merseysiders now travel to London to face title rivals Arsenal at the Emirates, tomorrow afternoon.

Arsenal got over their own midweek test against a dogged Nottingham Forest side on Tuesday, that saw them held scoreless at the City Grounds until after half time, when Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Sako finally broke down the Forest defence to score for the Gunners. It closed the gap on Liverpool to two points for 24 hours, even though manager Mikel Arteta and the Londoners were made to sweat for the last minute and added time, when Taiwo Awoniyi cut it back to the minimum with his late strike for Forest.

Points for points

The next night, Man City joined Arsenal in joint second place with their 3-1 win over Burnley, while Liverpool extended their lead back to five points with the Conor Bradley Show comfortably getting the better of the Stamford Bridge club on a 4-1 scoreline, that easily could have been six but for Darwin Nunez’ fascination with hitting the woodwork.

For the boss

So, the scene is now set for so much to play for tomorrow, in like we said could be another season-defining game. All the more so with the announcement last week by Jurgen Klopp that this would be his last season with Liverpool, meaning each game from now till the end of the season takes on even more significance. Each game will take on aspects of a cup final, as the Liverpool team and club look to squeeze out the very best results they can get for their departing boss, till the end of the season.

And it would not be a surprise if Sunday’s game lives up to that ‘cup final’ billing as these two sides seem to enjoy playing against each other, especially in the Klopp and Arteta era, with plenty goals usually in the mix.

Since Klopp’s arrival at Anfield in 2015, the sides have met 22 times with the Merseysiders coming out on top with 12 wins compared to Arsenal’s four victories, and six draws. Liverpool have scored an amazing 53 goals in these encounters while Arsenal secured 28 goals, despite coming out second best in most encounters. Notably, only two of the draws ended scoreless and both of those were in the Carabao Cup were the home and away nature of the tie lends itself to more tactically conservative results.

Since Arteta’s arrival at the London club, in 2019, the consensus is that he has narrowed the difference between the sides bagging those four wins for Arsenal in the 13 matches between the sides since he took the helm at the Emirates.

Three of the wins were at home, so having the game in London tomorrow should be a significant advantage. However, it must be noted that Liverpool won there in the sides’ last engagement, slightly against the run of play, when they beat Arsenal 2-0 in the FA Cup third round match, back in the first week of the new year.

Salah who?

Liverpool are unbeaten in 15 games which is particularly notable as many of those wins happened while without the services of many of the first team due to injuries and of course with talismanic goal-scorer Mo Salah, who was away with Egypt on AFCON duty.

When news that Salah picked up a hamstring injury with his African home nation came through, it was greeted by dread by all Liverpool fans.

However, their fears were not realised as Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez have stepped up with goals, so much so that you’d be hard pressed to notice the Egyptian’s absence.

There was some hope during the week that Salah may make it back in time for the Arsenal game, but it’s unlikely that Klopp will risk rushing him back too soon and indeed, as unbelievable as it may sound, Salah may have his work cut out to get back in the team the way the front trio have been performing in his absence. Though it’s hard to see Salah putting up with that situation for too long.

It all sets up tomorrow’s game for a potentially thrilling encounter, where Arsenal will look to make the most of home advantage and build on their own back-to-back wins, while Liverpool will look to make the most of the goodwill and warm feelings of the Jurgen Klopp farewell tour too.