- Liverpool v Arsenal overseen by the most home biased referee in the Premier League
- How pundits failed to see the signs of Arsenal’s rise up the league.
We can see immediately from the table below Liverpool have a seriously better home record than Arsenal have an away record. Quite why that is we can but speculate, but that is how it goes at the moment.
| P | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Liverpool home | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 5 | 16 | 22 |
| 3 | Arsenal away | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 16 |
Indeed Liverpool is one of the few teams that have won more games against Arsenal than Arsenal have won against them – the current figure being 82 to Arsenal and 94 to Liverpool. Indeed it seems to me that the last time Arsenal won a league game away to Liverpool was back in September 2012 when the score was 0-2.
Indeed it has been a pretty awful record in recent years but we have had a win (3-2) and a draw (2-2) in the last two league games so maybe things are looking up a bit!
But we can also find a little speck of better news by looking at the last six games table as we do before each game… And in addition to Arsenal and Liverpool, I’ve picked out three of our regular rivals, plus the rather interesting case of Everton. Manchester City may of course recover at some stage but it has been interesting to see them slip. Indeed although it is not relevant to Arsenal’s game today it is interesting to contemplate their last six games in the Premier League…
| Date | League Game | Res |
Score |
| 12 Nov 2023 | Chelsea v Manchester City | D | 4-4 |
| 25 Nov 2023 | Manchester City v Liverpool | D | 1-1 |
| 03 Dec 2023 | Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur | D | 3-3 |
| 06 Dec 2023 | Aston Villa v Manchester City | L | 1-0 |
| 10 Dec 2023 | Luton Town v Manchester City | W | 1-2 |
| 16 Dec 2023 | Manchester City v Crystal Palace | D | 2-2 |
So here’s the league table based on the last six games:
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 15 |
| 2 | Everton | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 15 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 5 | +7 | 14 |
| 11 | Tottenham Ho | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 10 | +2 | 7 |
| 12 | Manchester City | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 7 |
| 13 | Chelsea | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 14 | -3 | 7 |
It is of course true that Arsenal’s league position isn’t that much better than Liverpool’s, and I am certainly not going to suggest that this gives Arsenal the edge – but we generally do look at these last six games tables, and this one does remind us how the media’s favourites have slipped up of late. And indeed how much the points deduction for Everton has boosted their performances of late – their results are quite extraordinary when compared with their overall league position… Indeed if their appeal were to give them back their lost points they would be above Chelsea.
Here’s today’s table before today’s games… six of the “big seven” occupy the top seven places with just Chelsea continuing their sojourn in the lower reaches.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 17 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 35 | 15 | 20 | 39 |
| 2 | Aston Villa | 18 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 38 | 22 | 16 | 39 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 17 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 36 | 15 | 21 | 38 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 17 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 40 | 20 | 20 | 34 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 17 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 35 | 23 | 12 | 33 |
| 6 | Newcastle United | 17 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 36 | 21 | 15 | 29 |
| 7 | Manchester United | 17 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 21 | -3 | 28 |
So pulling it all together, and adding in the bias of the referee we saw earlier and this is looking like a very tough game for Arsenal.
In terms of injuries, the PL Injury site records Arsenal as having six players down and out. Arsenal have lost for this match Vieira, Tomiyasu, Partey, Jorginho, Elneny, and Timber.
As for Liverpool, they are missing some or all of Matip, Alcantara, Robertson, Jola, MacAllister, Gravenberch and Maquieira through possible injuries.
Arsenal are however trying to win 25 league games in two consecutive years (ie 2022 and 2023) for the first time ever which shows just how strong this squad is becoming. And in another interestingly positive statistic Arsenal have “only conceded 43 shots on target this term, the fewest in the top flight.” That from the BBC.
Which by and large takes us onto the possible line up. In this regard Yahoo gives us
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Rice, Havertz;
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli
Sporting News gives us the same, and that line up seems to be the choice of most correspondents.
So there we are. My view for what it is worth is that the referee will decide the game. In fact looking at his record so far, the referee will already have decided on the result long before the first ball is kicked.
If Zinchenko is fb we are royally down for. I expect a defeat anyway but he couldn’t defend a reason for tea at breakfast.
They will high press and we don’t cope well with that against lesser teams.
Ad to that out abject shooting of late and all is not welll
I too believe that we are in for a rough ride and I don’t expect any help from Kavanagh in fact the opposite.. If we play Zinchenko at left back and he cuts inside it will invite Alexander Arnold forward leaving room for Martinelli to exploit . I can see a flare up and will not be surprised if we finish with ten men.
Not 10 minutes and Saka is getting manhandled with no reaction from the so-called referee.
Even the commentators who are pro-Pool! are saying it should have been a yellow.
Odegaard touched the ball with his hand…no question about it.
No VAR check, no penalty….
I don’t understand it…even if in this case I don’t mind…
Now Diaz goes after White with the ball gone… nothing….
The refereeing and VAR are just useless
Not that it comes as a surprise…..
a pretty soft yellow given to Havertz…clearly a balancing yellow for the obvious yellow the ref had to give to Endo for the professional foul to stop an Arsenal break.
Time to check the boots, a lot of Arsenal players are slipping.
Saka hasn’t been involved in this match much
Martinelli is the one to watch, he is getting in chances and just hasn’t put anything away.
I am worried about Zinchenko…losing the ball.
So Eddie gets fouled by Salah and Salah gets a yellow…. yet all Salah did was push Eddie like Havertz was pushed…. and did not get a penalty….
They are just totally incompetent.
Winter turf … how many times did we slip?
Sill, we started well…Pool dominated in the middle and the last half hour was equal.
I would have been screaming for the Odegaard handball but if a defender can handle the ball accidentally but not a forward as at Aston Villa then if that’s the law then it should not be given.
We came out with black eye….
And Arsenal stood up to the constant agression.
Could have been a loss all the same. A penalty, a not crossbar and we’re out 3-1
How they missed that 5 against 1 counter is beyond me, but good for us.
Havertz got his 5th yellow as expected.
And Arsenal got 5 yellows to screw up the ranking !
`The commentator informed us “Havertz will now miss the match on Boxing Day”. He must be getting a quick transfer as we don’t have a match on Boxing Day.
I think Salah got cautioned for moaning at the referee.