Liverpool vs Arsenal is always ‘spectacular’ — but here’s why it can define the season

A Christmas cracker awaits at Anfield as Liverpool host Arsenal, but now the Premier League title is on the line as well

An Anfield game between two of English football’s most decorated clubs with a recent history of high scorelines and high drama. It promised much. And if Liverpool against Manchester United did not live up to expectations last Saturday, now comes a match that often has a case to be the game of the season.

Certainly from a Liverpool perspective, given that Arsenal’s last seven league trips to Anfield have yielded them a solitary point. But they tend to bring goals: in Jurgen Klopp’s eight home top-flight matches against Arsenal, Liverpool have scored 27 times. The most recent meeting was the only time they failed to find the net three times and even that required a remarkable injury-time save from Aaron Ramsdale to deny Ibrahima Konate and stop Liverpool from completing a comeback from 2-0 down to 3-2 up in April.

If there was also an eventful ending the first time Klopp faced Arsenal with Liverpool – Joe Allen scoring a last-minute goal to make it 3-3 in January 2016 – subsequent scores have been more one-sided: 3-1, 4-0, 5-1, 3-1, 3-1, 4-0 and then 2-2. It has been one of the most action-packed fixtures on the calendar.

“Spectacular,” remarked Klopp. Home and away, including cup matches, his Liverpool have brought up half a century of goals against Arsenal. Their forwards have feasted on the Gunners. Mohamed Salah has eight of them, Diogo Jota seven, the sold Sadio Mane seven more, the departed Roberto Firmino 11.

The reasons can include Arsenal’s attacking ethos as well as their defending that, at points over the German’s reign at Anfield, has been too accommodating. There were times they looked too fragile, too liable to being blown away. “Arsenal is a football playing side, always was with Arsene Wenger in the beginning. You see how many coaches were at different clubs and only recently I looked in my eight-and-a-half years here Arsenal have had only three and only two since Arsene in Unai [Emery] and now Mikel [Arteta],” Klopp said. “It was always football and that’s what made the results. Did we play 5-5 once, and it went to a penalty shoot-out? We changed a lot, we played the kids, so it was really strange.”

Firmino was often the scourge of Arsenal and scored a hat-trick against them in December 2018 (Getty Images)

That 5-5, in a 2019 Carabao Cup tie, showed the goals kept on coming even in the absence of Salah, Mane and Firmino. It is also notable because the Arsenal games Klopp thinks of first are not any of the six emphatic Anfield league victories.

“My highlights when I will look back in the future will maybe be away wins at Arsenal. Not because it’s Arsenal but because of the performance,” he rationalised. There was the statement of intent at the start of a season in 2016, Mane’s goalscoring debut and Gini Wijnaldum’s bow when Liverpool’s blitz of four goals in 20 minutes was an illustration of how devastating Klopp’s team could be.

“So the 4-3 with Sadio Mane and Phil Coutinho,” Klopp recalled. “And the Carabao semi with Diogo Jota, these kinds of things.” The Portuguese’s brace in London in 2022 took Liverpool to a final they won.

Now the stakes could be higher, and not merely because top spot at Christmas is at stake. Over seven weeks, Liverpool and Arsenal meet twice in the Premier League when, should either side take six points, it will represent a sizeable boost to their title ambitions, the FA Cup, with the loser likely to be the third round’s biggest casualty, and the FA Youth Cup.

While Klopp and Arteta had a touchline row during Liverpool’s 4-0 win in November 2021: generally, though, this has not been a rancorous rivalry. During Arsenal’s wilderness years, it was not a particularly close one – indeed, Liverpool finished 43 points ahead of the Gunners in 2019-20 – but Arsenal’s renaissance under the Spaniard has altered that. “Mikel is doing an incredible job,” Klopp said.

Arteta lost his cool on the touchline in 2021 (Getty Images)

Arsenal were title challengers last season. “That was the team we faced, a super-strong team, and then you bring in [Declan] Rice and [Kai] Havertz and it doesn’t make you worse,” Klopp said. “[David] Raya in goal doesn’t make you worse. Mikel could build exactly the team he wants. They are difficult to play, they are a good mix between physicality – big, strong, fast players - good technique, very good organisation, really well-coached, well-drilled and you see every year they make another step.”

If Anfield can feel the final frontier for Arsenal, who have not won there since Arteta was in their midfield, it has the makings of one the closest games on Merseyside in Klopp’s time. “They are in a good moment and we’re not in a bad moment and that is usually the recipe for a good football game,” the Liverpool manager said. “They are just really good games and I expect that tomorrow.” Perhaps Saturday, unlike last Sunday, will be spectacular.