Liverpool v Arsenal: Preview

I’m not confident going into our opening League game against Arsenal but from what I’ve read on-line, Arsenal fans don’t appear overly confident either. I’m sure fans of both clubs would prefer fixtures at home to newly promoted teams (as Chelsea and Man Ure have).

I was encouraged by our recent win over Rabotnicki. Yes, the opposition was poor but Liverpool played with panache and style despite the inevitable rustiness. Last season, against poor opposition (Debreceni VSC, Unirea Urziceni, Leeds United and Reading, for example) we sunk down to their level rather than revelling in our superiority. This gives me some optimism.

Of course, Arsenal are several classes above Rabotnicki and will present a real challenge but I still believe we are capable of matching them. Despite the final gap of 12 points and four League positions, I didn’t feel there was a big gap between us and Arsenal and in the games we played against them, they never looked superior and profited from big slices of luck (an o.g. in the home game, injury to Carra in the away game and cast-iron penalties not given to us in each game) to take 6 points. Hopefully a combination of the motivational effect of having a new manager and a boisterous home crowd will give us an extra lift.

The stats also seem to favour us. Even though we lost both League games against the Gunners last season, the stats show we have never lost 3 consecutive Premiership games versus Arsenal before.

In 18 previous Premiership seasons, Liverpool have played League games against Arsenal in August on 6 occasions (a third of all seasons!). Of those six, five were at Anfield and while none were played as the teams’ opening fixture, on three occasions it was the first League game at Anfield of that season.

Liverpool’s record is:

Total:
Pld – 6, W – 3, D – 1, L – 2

At Anfield:
Pld – 5, W – 3, D – 1, L – 1

When first League game at Anfield of season:
Pld – 3, W – 2, D – 1, L – 1

Generally, Liverpool’s record on the opening day of the season is as follows:

Home: Pld – 5, W – 4, D – 0, L – 1

Away: Pld – 13, W – 6, D – 5, L – 2

Total: Pld – 18, W – 10, D – 5, L – 3

That’s pretty good considering the shocking bias in the split between home and away fixtures. Incidentally the one home fixture we lost on the opening day of the season was to Chelsea in their first campaign funded by Roman Abramovich! Unbelievably, in six years at the club, Rafa Benitez was not given a single home fixture on the opening weekend!

Hodgson has been given one at the first time of asking but the fact it is against Arsenal means he won’t be grateful for it. However, a win for Hodgson would give his tenure the kick-start it really needs.

Prediction: (optimistically) 2-1 to Liverpool

Come on, Red men!!!!!