Arsenal can use Man City blueprint to punish clear Liverpool weakness
Arsenal have the perfect blueprint to follow on how to exploit Liverpool’s biggest weakness ahead of today’s crunch Premier League tie at Anfield. It’s a huge game for both clubs with the Gunners looking to maintain their lead over Manchester City at the top of the table while Liverpool need a result to keep their feint top-four hopes alive.
Liverpool’s record against Arsenal at home should make them favourites for the match, but Jurgen Klopp’s side have been unable to find any momentum all season long. In contrast, Arsenal are on a seven-game winning streak in the league stretching back to the 3-1 defeat to City in February.
Five of those wins have come against teams battling against relegation, but Mikel Arteta’s side have shown no mercy in that run with 23 goals scored. And they’ll have to be ruthless against Liverpool today if they’re to keep City at bay in the title race.
It’s been more than a decade since Arsenal have walked away from Anfield with a victory when Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla scored to give Arsene Wenger’s side all three points. Arteta was still playing in Arsenal’s midfield at that time and now he’s tasked with ending the club’s barren run on Merseyside.
And they’ve arguably never had a better opportunity to take all three points from Anfield with City setting the perfect example from their win over Liverpool just last week. Klopp’s side were well in the match until they imploded at the start of the second half.
Confidence is clearly a real issue for Liverpool’s players at the moment as they appeared to drop their heads immediately after Kevin De Bruyne’s goal at the restart. More worrying for Liverpool was how easy it was for City to dictate play in the final third and cut through their defensive unit with ease.
Trent Alexander-Arnold had a torrid day trying to hold off the in-form Jack Grealish while Andy Robertson didn’t fare much better on the opposite flank. Even the usually-reliable Virgil van Dijk appeared far from his best as Julian Alvarez continually popped up in space.
It’s something Klopp has struggled to fix all season in trying to return his defensive unit to their previous rock-solid best. And Arsenal have the firepower to pile more misery on Klopp’s underperforming Liverpool side.
Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka will undoubtedly cause unrest for Liverpool’s full-backs, while Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard will fancy their chances at being given space. Liverpool do fare much better at home than they have done away from Anfield, but Arsenal have no reason to be fearful of this Liverpool side who are there for the taking.
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