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These two played out a stalemate in the Community Shield, with Arsenal triumphing on penalties, and both managers will be happy with their respective starts to the new campaign.
Liverpool survived a scare on the opening day hosting a dangerous Leeds in a thrilling encounter, while they then backed that up with an impressive win over Chelsea, even if Andreas Christensen’s early bath made life easier for them.
Meanwhile, the Gunners have opened the campaign with back-to-back victories over Fulham and West Ham, while they took down Leicester in the League Cup. They only conceded once across those three fixtures, though we wouldn’t expect another shutout at Anfield.
Both Teams To Score
Arsenal are without a clean sheet against Liverpool in 11 encounters across all competitions, but they also managed to get on the scoresheet in 10 of them as well.
These games have typically been high-scoring affairs, with at least four goals on eight occasions, though the two meetings since Mikel Arteta arrived at the helm have been more conservative in output.
The Spaniard appears to have found a remedy for Arsenal’s struggles against the top sides, with his team a hugely impressive W6-D3-L3 in all competitions against the top eight finishers from last season since he arrived in the hot seat.
Still, Liverpool last suffered defeat at Anfield in league action back in April 2017, winning 49 of 60 matches since then, including 26 of the last 27.
However, with just two clean sheets from their last seven there – against Palace and Villa sides that lacked consistent goalscorers last term – it’s hard to make a case for the clean sheet given the strides made at Arsenal under new management.
In fact, Liverpool have kept just seven clean sheets in their last 20 league matches at Anfield, so both teams to score appears a no brainer, even at relatively short odds.
That record at Anfield clearly sets them apart from their visitors here though, despite the Gunners’ upward trajectory.
-1 Handicap Draw
Arteta has only lost five of his 32 games in charge in all competitions over 90 minutes, with only one of those defeats coming by more than a single goal, so while Liverpool deservedly start as favourites, should they claim maximum points we’d expect it to come by the slimmest of margins.
Jurgen Klopp doesn’t have too many selection problems at the moment. Midfielders Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jordan Henderson are out, but he has other options in the middle of the park and especially with new signing Thiago – who has tormented Arsenal in the past during his time with Bayern.
Joe Gomez is also a doubt, but Fabinho could well start over Joel Matip again after impressing at centre-back against Chelsea.
Arteta has greater concerns with a number of defensive absentees. However, none of Callum Chambers, Pablo Mari, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis or Cedric Soares would feature in Arsenal’s best team, so the real concern is over injury doubt Kieran Tierney.
The Gunners could be in trouble if Sead Kolasinac takes his place on the left side of a back three, especially as he’ll struggle to cope with Mo Salah’s runs from outside to inside. Arsenal are much tighter defensively now, but Liverpool should edge this one.
LIVERPOOL V ARSENAL ODDS AVAILABLE HERE
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ODDS ARE CORRECT AS OF 28/9/2020 HOWEVER ARE SUBJECT TO FLUCTUATIONS
