Saturday 4th March 2016 Kickoff: 1730hrs Liverpool v Arsenal Football – England – Premier League The fixture of this Premier League weekend takes place at Anfield on in the Saturday early evening kick off with Liverpool taking on Arsenal. It looks very unlikely that either team will be able to challenge Chelsea for the title but the game itself remains huge in the race for a top four finish. Liverpool were embarrassed at the beginning of this week going down 3-1 away to Leicester and simply have to get back to winning ways against an Arsenal team who had a week off due to the EFL Cup Final.
It was an awful night for Jurgen Klopp and his men away to the champions on Monday evening and a further indication of how inconsistencies continue to blight Liverpool’s progress. Klopp would have hoped that the 2-0 win at home to Tottenham in their previous game was a sign of things to come after a sticky pitch, and give the Reds a foundation to build on between now and the end of the season. However, the win over Spurs now looks like being the exception rather than the norm and Liverpool are in serious danger of missing out on playing in next season’s Champions League as a result. There’s no doubt they were facing a revitalised Leicester City but they were helped on their way by dire defending on Liverpool’s behalf. The defeat leaves ‘Pool in fifth spot, a point behind this weekend’s opponents but having played a game more. What will also be of concern is the fact that they only have a one point cushion over Manchester United who also have a game in hand and play in the early afternoon kick off so could potentially be above both Liverpool and Arsenal by time those two take the pitch tomorrow.
Arsenal have not played since defeating non-league Sutton United 2-0 in the FA Cup on the 20th of February. The rest may just have come at the right time considering it came soon after damaging defeats to Chelsea in the league and Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Both those games all but confirmed what many people have felt about this Arsenal team for a long time, that they are incapable of competing with the best England and Europe has to offer. There has been much speculation about the future of Arsene Wenger beyond the end of the season but it’s looking more and more likely that a new manager will take helm for the first time in two decades. The Gunners remain involved in three competitions (for the moment at least) so have to concentrate on the job at hand starting by attempting to cement their place in the top four with a result against Liverpool on Saturday. Currently in fourth spot, Arsenal are 13 points behind leaders Chelsea but do have a game in hand. With the top three all playing on either Sunday or Monday this week, it at least gives them the chance to make up some points, for a short time at least.
Liverpool v Arsenal Betting Tip
This game is synonymous with Premier League football and is usually one to look forward to. Unfortunately for both sets of supporters it will have little to no bearing on the title race for another season but they will also not underestimate it in terms of their hopes for playing in Europe’s elite club competition next term. The first meeting of the two this season came on the opening day and remains one of the best of the current campaign. Liverpool were scintillating at times but ended up holding on to win 4-3. It’s somewhat indicative of their season to date in that no team can live with them on their game but they are incredibly vulnerable in defence.
Liverpool and Arsenal are amongst the highest scorers in the Premier League, scoring 55 and 54 respectively. Nobody has scored more goals in the league at home than Liverpool whilst the same can also be said for Arsenal on their road – so at the very least we should be guaranteed some entertainment. The fixture is also one that promises goals as six of the last seven have seen three or more scored, five of those have had four or more and three of those had at least five scored. In total there have been 31 goals scored in the last seven meetings and I think we can expect more of the same. With a draw of absolutely no value to either team then there will be no shortage of motivation to take the game to each other and over 2.5 goals looks a banker in this one.
Over 2.5 goals 37/50 @ Marathonbet
