Another weekend in the Premier (greatest) League (in the world) and again we have a game with the potential to define the seasons of the two teams involved. At 17:30 (UK Time) today Liverpool travel to London to face an Arsenal side that have surprised everyone wiht the rapidity of their improvement this season. On Sky's Monday Night Football show, after Manchester City's narrow defeat of Tottenham, Jamie Carragher and Gaz Neville were talking up the importance of games between the notional top six in the division and this game most definitely falls into that category.
Seven wins from the opening 10 games sees the Gunners in fourth place and the two defeats on their report card came in the opening two games of the season. Those two games happened to be Unai Emery's first two games in English football. However, today their improvement will be properly tested after last weekends dropped points versus Crystal Palace Arsenal face the side that everyone expects to be City's closest challengers this season. A win will put Arsenal just a point behind Liverpool and have people asking whether a tilt at the title is a very real possibility.
So far in the top six mini-league Liverpool have taken five points from the nine available to them with victory at Tottenham Hotspur and draws with Chelsea and City themselves. With five of the top six sides seemingly impervious to the threat posed by any of the leagues other 14 sides these games are just as important as Jamie and Gaz were leading us to believe on Monday.
Currently second on goal difference, Liverpool are exactly where they deserve to be in the league. However, the question is just exactly how many points can Pep Guardiola's side be expected to drop. Last season they let just 14 slip through their fingers on their way to a century. It is hard to see them dropping too many more than that this season. This means that for Jurgen Klopp every draw, even away at a tricky rejuvenated Arsenal makes a significant dent in their hopes of claiming a first title in the Premier League era.
The good news for Liverpool is that the front three are firing again and I fully expect them to have too much for Emery's team.
Suggested bets, please note this is NOT financial advice, past performance suggests that you swerve these selections entirely, I enter them here solely for the purpose of record keeping.
Arsenal v Liverpool, 17:30 (UK Time), Saturday 3rd November.
Over 2.5 goals, 2 points at 1.57 with Betfair Exchange.
Liverpool to win 2-1, 1 point at 10.00 with Betfair Exchange.
Liverpool to win 3-1, 0.5 points at 16.00 with Betfair Exchange.
