Return to Anfield, scene of harrowing recent defeats, offers early test of Arsenal’s putative revival
If any fixture can puncture the fragile early-season optimism that has broken out at Arsenal then it is surely the prospect of a 200-mile journey north to face Liverpool.
Saturday’s trip to Anfield promises to be a reminder of harrowing experiences for the Gunners in recent seasons, with the manner of their defeats even more wounding than their regularity.
Last term Jurgen Klopp’s team routed them 5-1. The previous year it was 4-0 and the one before that 3-1. The thrashings are getting worse, although they also lost 5-1 to Brendan Rodgers’ Reds in 2014.
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As such, this clash between the only two teams to have started the new Premier League season with consecutive wins is a useful gauge of whether a summer shake-up really has improved Arsenal.
Liverpool finished 27 points ahead of the north Londoners in May and have already claimed a first trophy of 2019-20, lifting the European Super Cup in between beating Norwich 4-1 and Southampton 2-1.
Arsenal have begun with back-to-back victories for the first time in 10 years – a 1-0 at Newcastle and an encouraging 2-1 at home to Burnley – although excitement ought to be tempered by the quality of opposition.
“To be in this moment with the possibility to go top is amazing,” Emery said yesterday. “It’s a very big challenge and a very big opportunity for us to do something.”
Stronger Arsenal
There are a few reasons to believe Unai Emery’s men can at least prove slightly more competitive on this visit to the European champions, however.
Although they top the table, Liverpool have not hit their stride yet. A poor pre-season has bled into some scratchy displays, while their front three have all had curtailed summer breaks due to international duty, with Mohamed Salah in particular looking less sharp than usual.
Klopp’s men are yet to keep a clean sheet in their four games so far including the Community Shield – a loss on penalties to Manchester City after a 1-1 draw – and against promoted Norwich they looked unusually defensively uncertain at times.
Compounding that vulnerability is the injury to Alisson. The Brazil and Liverpool No1’s absence has thrust former West Ham goalkeeper Adrian into the spotlight and his shortcomings were evident in the goal he gifted to Danny Ings at St Mary’s on Saturday.
There are worse times to be visiting Anfield, on paper at least.
Arsenal, meanwhile, look a stronger proposition this term following the signing of David Luiz, Dani Ceballos and Nicolas Pepe.
Against Burnley, Luiz brought much-needed authority to the defence as well as an ability to switch play with accurate long passes and Ceballos a blend of industry and technique the midfield has been missing.
Club record £72m buy Pepe has shown only flashes of skill in his cameos – a turn that beat three Newcastle players, a nutmeg on Burnley’s Ben Mee – but enough to suggest a front three of him, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, could be potent.
On the other hand, Emery will be under no illusions about the scale of the challenge Liverpool present, even putting to one side for a moment their recent history of reminding Arsenal.
An extraordinary Manchester City team may have pipped them to the Premier League title last season but they have reached and sustained a level of consistency that is normally the preserve of championship-winning sides.
Liverpool’s wins over Arsenal have seen them run amok on the counter-attack and it cannot have gone unnoticed that Ashley Barnes’s goal for Burnley at Emirates Stadium came after a breakaway.
Relentless effectiveness
Perhaps Liverpool’s greatest strength is their system – and therein lies a major difference to Arsenal.
A few weeks off his fourth anniversary in charge, Klopp’s team are now a near-perfect embodiment of the brand of high-pressing, quick-breaking football that brought the German to wider attention.
Regardless of the occasion or opposition, they can be expected to line up in a 4-3-3 formation spearheaded by their devastating forward trio and augmented by others recruited for their tactical suitability.
Like Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, Liverpool’s system may be predictable, but that does not mean opponents can stop it. What it lacks in surprises, it makes up for in relentless effectiveness.
Arsenal have no such fixed identity. In his year at the club Emery has jumped between systems, back fours and back fives, different midfield dynamics, one-man and two-man strikeforces.
Although they used four-man defences against Newcastle and Burnley it is hard to know whether the Spaniard will stick with that at Anfield. Last weekend he switched to a back five to close the game out.
Emery has talked up his preference for tactical flexibility, telling Spanish media in May: “I want us to be a chameleon team, able to play in possession, in static attack against close opponents, or to counter-attack.”
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In an era of great teams defined by distinctive systems – Guardiola’s Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now City, Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, Antonio Conte’s Juventus and Chelsea – it remains to be seen whether Emery’s Arsenal can make a virtue of fluidity.
Tomorrow might go some way to answering questions about that, and how seriously to take talk of a Gunners revival.