Liverpool vs Arsenal preview: How do fans feel?, view on the opposition’s season and our writers’ predictions

Liverpool and Arsenal face each other in the Premier League at Anfield on Sunday in a first-versus-second Premier League clash.

Yet with Arne Slot’s home team having already secured the title, there is less riding on the match than might have been assumed when the fixtures were released in pre-season.

Nevertheless, Arsenal are looking to secure Champions League qualification following the disappointment of their midweek exit from the competition’s semi-finals at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool will be hoping to bounce back from their loss to Chelsea in the league last weekend and secure a first win since being crowned champions.

Here, our Liverpool writer Andy Jones and his Arsenal counterpart Art de Roché look ahead to the game.

How do each team’s fans feel about this fixture? It could have been the title decider…

Andy Jones: Wait, there’s a game on Sunday? I was heading to Anfield to continue the championship knees-up.

This fixture has nothing riding on it from a Liverpool perspective because the league is wrapped up and celebrating that is more important than winning some more matches — the party atmosphere in the away end at Chelsea during the 3-1 defeat a week ago illustrated that, as did Arne Slot’s team selection for that match.

What should have been an incredibly nerve-racking week for Liverpool and their fans is now simply just people being excited about watching the Premier League’s new champions play again.

Slot won’t want to end his debut season on a poor run of form, though. Breaking the 90-point barrier (Liverpool have 82 with three games left) remains a target for the supporters, while beating Arsenal is something they have struggled to do in the Premier League recently. A victory here would rubber-stamp the dominance they have shown all season and continue to rubbish the idea that Liverpool are only the 2024-25 champions because the league overall has been poor. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s rather odd comments about Liverpool’s points tally earlier this week have only served to reinforce their fans’ desire to win this game.

Slot called the final four matches after clinching the title the start of next season, and if a win on Sunday helps build his side’s momentum further and continues to halt Arsenal’s then that can only be a good thing, as both will be aiming to mount championship challenges again come August.

Art de Roché: From an Arsenal perspective, the most annoying thing is that there is still something riding on the game.

A few weeks ago, it seemed like they were definitely going to come second, but heading into this weekend Arsenal found themselves just three points above Manchester City (that gap is now two after City’s draw with Southampton on Saturday) and four clear of both Newcastle United and Chelsea. While many of their fans may just want the season to end now they’re out of the Champions League, the players and staff still need to secure as high a finish as possible.

What have you thought about the opposing team’s season?

Jones: There are elements of sympathy I have had with Arsenal, as Liverpool have had their own share of big injury crises over the years which have hampered them. Their fixture list to begin the campaign was also unkind. It has never felt like they have found a consistency in their attacking play, even before major injuries hit them. Set pieces often seemed to be their route to goals in the first half of the season, and that felt unsustainable.

The biggest issue Arsenal have had, though, is the failure to capitalise on Liverpool’s slip-ups. Their 0-0 home draw with Everton (when they had everybody available) on December 14, as a 10-man Liverpool side were drawing 2-2 at Anfield against Fulham felt significant. Coupled with a lack of consistency — they haven’t won more than three league games in a row all season — that makes sustaining a title challenge virtually impossible.

A frustrated Martin Odegaard during the draw with Everton in December (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

The Champions League was the hope they were clinging to, and while they played well in the second leg of the semi-final in Paris on Wednesday, this is another season without a trophy — their fifth in a row.

De Roché: Liverpool’s start to the season reminded me of Arsenal’s in 2022-23. They were straight out of the blocks, other than the home loss to Nottingham Forest in early September, and set the pace. The points they dropped during the winter period and over the second half of the season were not a surprise, but Arsenal doing so at the same time often meant that those bad results did not matter as much as they could have done.

There will be frustration from Arsenal that they were not the ones to step up in the year City finally faltered after four successive titles, but congratulations to Liverpool either way.

Which opposing player concerns you most and why?

Jones: The obvious answer is Bukayo Saka, because he is the stardust of Arsenal’s attack and has tormented Liverpool, and Andy Robertson in particular, in the past. If you can keep him quiet, particularly with Arsenal’s lack of a true No 9, then their attack can look blunt from open play. Martin Odegaard’s underwhelming recent form has not helped.

I have been impressed with Declan Rice in recent weeks. He’d been the heartbeat of their team for a while but seems to have stepped up even more. He is the midfield driving force and can dominate a game.

De Roché: It has to be Mohamed Salah. Aside from his form this season, Salah has scored 11 times and assisted four goals in his 15 Premier League matches against Arsenal. He has an even better record against several English clubs, but has often been there to put a nail of his own in Arsenal coffins over the years.

Salah celebrates scoring against Arsenal in October (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

The fact he is just two away from matching Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne’s Premier League record for assists in a season (20) doesn’t help either.

What tactical battles are you looking out for?

Jones: This will largely depend on whether Slot selects continues with the line-up he picked against Chelsea last weekend or reverts to his regular starters. If it’s the former, it will be more about assessing the individual performances of Jarell Quansah, Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott and their suitability to Slot’s system in a Premier League setting. Liverpool’s much-changed midfield, including Elliott and Endo, took time to settle against Chelsea — understandably, given their lack of time on the pitch this season — so what they have learnt and how they adjust, if they play, will be interesting.

Another aspect of the team to watch will be in the right-back area. With Trent Alexander-Arnold announcing his summer departure, there is an argument that, if fit, Conor Bradley should start this match. It will be a tough test for the Northern Ireland international up against Gabriel Martinelli, who has caused his outgoing team-mate plenty of problems in the past, but one the 21-year-old will have to get used to if he wants to be first-choice for Slot in that position next season.

In general, Arsenal were the better side when the two faced off earlier this season. With the standards Slot sets, no doubt he will be challenging his team to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

De Roché: Rather than being something tactical, I’m intrigued to see how Ethan Nwaneri is used in the three remaining games of the season — both from a minutes and positional perspective. The 18-year-old breathed new life into Arsenal’s season around the turn of the year, and has contributed nine goals and two assists in his 36 matches, but has been given less than 10 minutes as a substitute in each of his past three appearances.

Arteta reminded people before the Bournemouth game last weekend that attacking midfield is Nwaneri’s “main position” despite him impressing on the right wing during Saka’s three-month injury absence at the start of the calendar year, so now feels like a good opportunity to give him more exposure in that role. Even if it’s not as a starter, as Nwaneri has already played a lot of first-team football for his age, it could be by introducing him earlier off the bench.

And your result predictions, please…

Jones: With all the variables including team selection, atmosphere and the pressure being off, it is difficult to say from a Liverpool perspective exactly what performance we will get. Arsenal’s midweek exit from the Champions League, one game away from the final, could impact them in multiple ways, both mentally and physically. I’m going to go for a 2-1 Liverpool win.

De Roché: A draw, 1-1. Liverpool will take the game more seriously than they did their trip to Chelsea last weekend, but Arsenal won’t have enough in the tank to win after that draining loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

(Top photo: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

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