By Bulldog Drummond
Before we start, sad news about Nicklas Bendtner. A player of great potential (in my opinion) but with a very troubled personality, has apparently been convicted of assaulting a taxi driver and sentenced to 50 days in jail. He has appealed and is thus out of release pending the hearing.
Nicklas plays for Rosenborg in Norway, and the chief exec of the club said, “We think that it’s not good for the club and not good for Nicklas but he remains a player in the club. We are keeping him.”
Back on the home front, the bad news is that for the first time this season and indeed the first time in quite a while, we are top of the injury league with seven injuries. Liverpool have dropped way down the league with just three.
Here are our seven walking or not walking wounded. Details from physioroom.com, as always.
| Man down | What’s up | When back | Any news |
| Sokratis | Ankle Injury | November 3 | Late fitness test |
| H Bellerin | Thigh | November 3 | Being assessed but major doubt |
| M Elneny | Hamstring | November 25 | Full training in two weeks. |
| N Monreal | Hamstring | November 3 | Still a slight doubt |
| S Kolasinac | Hamstring | November 3 | Still a slight doubt |
| K Mavropanos | Groin Strain | November 11 | Will return to full training this month |
| L Koscielny | Achilles | November 25 | Getting closer but won’t be rushed. |
So we might get back one of our left backs. Meanwhile, Henderson, Keita and the Ox are all out for Liverpool.
Although doing exceptionally well in the league Liverpool have been having some problems in other games. Here are their last ten…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 15 Sep 2018 | Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 18 Sep 2018 | Liverpool v Paris St Germain | W | 3-2 | Champions League |
| 22 Sep 2018 | Liverpool v Southampton | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Sep 2018 | Liverpool v Chelsea | L | 1-2 | League Cup |
| 29 Sep 2018 | Chelsea v Liverpool | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 03 Oct 2018 | Napoli v Liverpool | L | 1-0 | Champions League |
| 07 Oct 2018 | Liverpool v Manchester City | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 20 Oct 2018 | Huddersfield Town v Liverpool | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 24 Oct 2018 | Liverpool v Crvena Zvezda | W | 4-0 | Champions League |
| 27 Oct 2018 | Liverpool v Cardiff City | W | 4-1 | Premier League |
They have indeed scored eight goals in their last two games, but if we go back to games before that, they scored just three goals in five games giving them one win, two defeats and two draws. So it really depends if we are playing the team of the last two games or the team of the previous four.
Liverpool did also have a couple of sudden blips last season – the first starting with a defeat to Manchester City in September. In the ten games from there on they won two, drew five and lost three.
They had a similar type of dip at the end of the season, winning four, losing three and drawing three. So these things can happen to them, but there is no mistaking the fact that they are a much stronger team than they have been for years. As yet not strong enough to win trophies (other than that one league cup – their sole trophy in the last ten years) but still stronger than the club that regularly finished around 7th in the league.
In head to head land Liverpool are one of the few teams who have beaten us more than we have them. Partly this is caused by the eight year period in the 1950s Liverpool had in the second division – while Arsenal’s bad patches have seen us stay in the first division – thus allowing teams like Liverpool to knock up a lot of wins while we were fairly awful.
On the other hand we are about to come to 100 years of being in the first division, which is quite a nice thing to celebrate. (And the usual reminder, if anyone is tempted to say that we tricked out way into the first division, it might be worth reading some of this historical site first.)
We have won 78 games against them, they have won 86 against us, with 60 games drawn.
But the fact is that the last ten have been fairly awful for us…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 08 Feb 2014 | Liverpool v Arsenal | L | 5-1 | Premier League |
| 16 Feb 2014 | Arsenal v Liverpool | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 21 Dec 2014 | Liverpool v Arsenal | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 04 Apr 2015 | Arsenal v Liverpool | W | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 24 Aug 2015 | Arsenal v Liverpool | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 13 Jan 2016 | Liverpool v Arsenal | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
| 14 Aug 2016 | Arsenal v Liverpool | L | 3-4 | Premier League |
| 04 Mar 2017 | Liverpool v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 27 Aug 2017 | Liverpool v Arsenal | L | 4-0 | Premier League |
| 22 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v Liverpool | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
We can but hope that the bad days are over.
- Arsenal v Liverpool. How to spend lots of money and not win trophies.
- Matchweek 11 – All the games, all the Officials, plus time played under caution
- Uefa takes more care than the Prem Lge, plus more rule changes proposed
Truly, the bad days in recent matches in 3 seasons in the PL against Liverpool are certainly over for Arsenal today at the Ems. For, the die is cast and Arsenal have crossed over to the winning side beating Liverpool to thereby end their strangle hold on Arsenal by Jurgen Klopp and his Reds as they meet their waterloo this evening against Unai Emery’s Gunners. Hmmm.
Even if there are injury and suspension concerns for Arsenal in their back-line the concerns will after all not become a concern as the Gunners will could be called in stand in for the injury and suspension concern will more than fill the injury and the suspension gaps and the Gunners will put the Reds to the gun in the game.
Truly, the bad days in recent matches in 3 seasons in the PL against Liverpool are certainly over for Arsenal today at the Ems. For, the die is cast and Arsenal have crossed over to the winning side beating Liverpool to thereby end the strangle hold on Arsenal by Jurgen Klopp and his Reds as they meet their waterloo this evening against Unai Emery’s Gunners. Hmmm.
Even if there are injury and suspension concerns for Arsenal in their back-line and sub back-line, these concerns will after all stop been a concern as the Gunners who could be called in to stand in for the injury and the suspension concerns will more than fill the injury and the suspension gaps if they are called in. And the Gunners if with injury and suspension concerns or none will put the Reds to the gun in the game.
A decent performance. That 2 up top seemed to work. Bit late, but a draw is good value given out recent run against Liverpool.
Lacazette scored a very good and very vital goal and we can tale heart from a reasonable performance with a limited selection available and a mini LB crisis.
That injury table looked very odd to start with and more so when both Sead and Hector played and reasonably well. Lucas was a bundle of energy and Xhaka put on a shift. Auba looked less than happy being substituted and I certainly think it is a waste with him out wide.
Ozil was linking play well even of Lucas got caught in possession a few times trying to do too much too soon ad we are not quite at the races as a unit.
Mustarfi managed some vital intentions even if he was somewhat cuplavle for the goal and some lucky reprieve. VVD was his usual self and improving daily. Bernd had a few scares coming off his line a bit hastily but his goal remained charmed which is always a good thing.
Holding is emerging as on it the better CB’s in the league and Mikhi was as always full of endeavour.
Iwobi made an impact as did Danny and although we stoped two points at home avoiding defeat on yet another top 6 clash was a marked improvement on the opening day.
B- with a lot more to come from the group.
Most importantly they looked hungry.