The glittering new-look of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal squad has been pretty impressive in previous weeks as they have obviously recovered from a faltering start to the season with their unbeaten run of 10 matches. And now the Gunners will have the chance to prove their new-found form and mettle as they gear up to face Liverpool on Saturday evening at Anfield.
If there was one team in the Premier League that did not need the intervention of the most recent international break, it would have been Arsenal. After recovering from their appalling start to the season, gaffer Mikel Arteta has seen his side suddenly transform into the most in-form team in the league over recent weeks. To their full credit, the Gunners have since rebounded most commendably from their 5-0 thumping by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at the end of August to embark on an impressive 10-match unbeaten run – the longest so far in the league currently.
Arsenal’s laudable turnaround has been earning praise and plaudits, rightfully too. The galvanising form shown of their new signings Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu has helped to inculcate new optimism into the entire Emirates squad, something definitely long overdue. And now the Gunners, complete with fledgling new stars and all, are up for their real acid test this Saturday as they head to Anfield, which has traditionally been like an accursed hunting ground for them.
Mikel Arteta has finally, and most remarkably, kept the Gunners on an even keel in north London after a nightmare start to the season navigating choppy waters that had developed the past few years even before former gaffer Unai Emery was replaced by Arteta. Now the Gunners owe it to themselves and their gaffer Arteta to dispel the reputation, and erase the stigma, they have for having failed to live up to the billing in high-profile domestic encounters with other top-six teams — especially in their away matches.
Be that as it may be, things have somehow been favorably improved in recent years, most notably under Arteta. Last year, Arsenal completed the league double over Chelsea, beating Frank Lampard’s side 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium and again later edging out Thomas Tuchel’s men 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. And then, in a totally unexpected, bewildering development last November, they finally halted a horrifying run of soul-sapping, 29 winless games on the road against the league’s ‘Big Six’, with Gabonese striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang’s brilliant stunner finding the net in a 1-0 win at Old Trafford to end their staggering dry patch.
Although Arsenal’s record against Liverpool in recent years hasn’t been exactly exemplary and doesn’t at all reflect well on Arteta, the gaffer and his Gunners are determined to end that pathetic run as he continues to push his new-look side to the limits of their new-found potential. It is still a grim reminder that Arsenal have won only two of their previous 15 league games against the Reds — and haven’t even vaguely tasted victory at Anfield since Lukasz Podolski and Santi Cazorla struck in a 2-0 win eons ago in September 2012.
Manchester City and Liverpool have been the dominant standard-bearers at the top of the Premier League for the last few years, making it look almost seemingly impossible for the Gunners to lay even a finger on the duo in recent clashes. Yet, realistically, Arteta and his gallant men shouldn’t be cowed by the Merseysiders this weekend.
Although there’s a chance that the Gunners may have lost momentum over the enforced break, it feels as though there couldn’t be a better time to play Jurgen Klopp’s side than right now. The Reds are coming off the back of a disappointing 3-2 reverse at West Ham, and whilst that has been their only league loss of the campaign so far, they’ve certainly looked far more mortal this year than they have in recent seasons under Klopp.
Despite Liverpool’s towering strongman and lynchpin Virgil van Dijk having returned from injury to marshal Liverpool’s rearguard, the Reds have looked a tad vulnerable and suspect in their defenses. And while Arsenal haven’t exactly been potent on the goal-scoring front so far this year, their star men are right smack on form right now with both Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka being on the scoresheet for England in midweek and seem capable of doing no wrong at the Emirates right now.
Arsenal do have a golden opportunity to finally buck their dismal trend against the ‘Big 6’ and halt their nine-year Anfield jinx, especially with all six of his summer signings now firmly embedded into the new starting XI.
Saturday’s trip to Anfield represents the first real challenge that Arteta’s newly-assembled squad will be squaring up against since embarking on their impressive, unbeaten run, and there’s no apparent reason why they should be lacking any confidence of emerging triumphant.