Ahead of Sunday's contest between Arsenal and Liverpool, Ben Bloom assesses whether Mikel Arteta's side must win to maintain their title hopes this season.
The Premier League season is barely two months old, but Liverpool's visit to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday carries such jeopardy that some believe defeat could prove terminal for Arsenal's title aspirations.
“If Arsenal lost this and went on to win the league I’d be absolutely amazed,” Gunners legend Paul Merson told Sky Sports ahead of this weekend’s crunch encounter. “I’d be flabbergasted. Arsenal would be out of the title race, for me.”
You cannot win a Premier League title in October, but you might just be able to lose it.
Over the past seven seasons, the top-flight champions have dropped an average of 20 points during the course of their title-winning campaigns. Defeat on Sunday would take Arsenal’s dropped points tally to 10 already, widening the gap between them and league leaders Liverpool to seven points in the process.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
8 | +12 | 21 |
| 2 |
Man City
MCI
|
8 | +10 | 20 |
| 3 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
8 | +7 | 17 |
| 4 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
8 | +5 | 17 |
Such a fate would require a mountain to be climbed if they were to overhaul both Arne Slot's side and Manchester City to end their 21-year league title drought.
Key absences makes Mikel Arteta's task even trickier for the visit of their fellow title rivals, but the Spaniard has adopted a notably bullish tone.
When it was pointed out to the Spaniard on Friday just how far behind Liverpool his team would fall with defeat, he cut the journalist short with an interruption that displayed the confident mindset he is determined to instil in his players.
“We are going to win it,” said Arteta. “I never think about losing it. Everything we do is to win it. In my preparation I don’t spend one second on if we lose it.”
Despite the potential absence of up to five first-team players for Sunday’s match, Arteta was intent on remaining positive.
See: Latest Premier League injuries
“We obviously don’t want to be in this situation but we are really lucky to have the squad that we have, to have the players that we have, to have the attitude that we have when it comes down to reacting against a difficult situation,” he said.
“Don’t feel sorry for ourselves. Face it. We are a team that we know how good we are and how difficult we can be for the opponent. Having that ruthless mentality in the team is something that I love.”
Later, he described how he relishes watching his players respond to adversity, instructing them to “get on with it” and “show your teeth”.
It was a rousing message to hearten Arsenal supporters, who might anxiously have been awaiting updates on a worryingly large number of potential absentees for Sunday’s match.
An Arteta press conference is often a puzzle, with the manager offering only the smallest hints behind the state of his players’ current fitness.
Only when the Spaniard names his team on Sunday afternoon will we know the extent of the squad’s injury woes, but the signs do not look promising at either end of the pitch.
On Bukayo Saka, who has missed Arsenal’s last two matches after injuring his hamstring playing for England earlier this month, Arteta suggested he had “done a bit of training on grass”, while conceding his involvement on Sunday was “another question”.
On Riccardo Calafiori, who limped out of Arsenal’s midweek UEFA Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, Arteta would say only that the left-back “needs some more tests”. The manager also confirmed Jurrien Timber has returned to training since picking up a muscular problem at the start of the month.
“We’re going to do our very best to somehow have them available,” he said of the trio. “It’s very uncertain.”
With Arteta sticking resolutely to his tried-and-tested method of keeping his cards close to his chest, it was left to the riddle solvers to deduce the high probability of Saka, Calafiori and Timber joining Martin Odegaard, William Saliba, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney on the sidelines for a match that could have a significant impact on the title race.
At the back, Saliba’s absence through suspension is likely to be of greatest significance after the Frenchman became the third Arsenal player sent off in the Premier League this season.
The Gunners have dropped seven points in the three matches they have finished with 10 men, in contrast to their unblemished record of wins when maintaining a full quota of players.
Last season, Saliba was Arsenal’s first outfield player ever to feature in every minute of a Premier League campaign.
Arteta must decide which options are most favourable of starting Jakub Kiwior, throwing Oleksandr Zinchenko in for the first time since August and potentially fielding Thomas Partey at right-back.
At the other end of the pitch, the potential absence of Saka and Odegaard would again leave Arsenal shorn of their main creative options.
In the 108 Premier League matches Saka and Odegaard have started together since the Norwegian joined permanently in 2021, Arsenal average 5.5 shots on target per match and 2.1 goals.
In the three matches without both of them, that drops to an average of three shots on target per match and one goal. The Gunners have lost two of those three matches.
Arteta opted to deploy Mikel Merino as the primary creative outlet behind the front line in a short-lived setup against AFC Bournemouth before Saliba’s early red card forced changes, and the Spaniard fulfilled a similar role for his country in his last two international appearances.
Yet it is widely accepted that Merino is more comfortable as either a No 8 or in a deeper-lying role.
Former Osasuna assistant coach Alfredo Sanchez, who worked with Merino at the start of the Arsenal midfielder’s career, told Sky Sports: “He had been playing more like a No 10 before we arrived at the club but we felt he was uncomfortable there. We moved him back and found that role to be ideal for him.”
Arteta went with a 4-4-2 formation in the 1-0 UEFA Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk this week, until altering the structure with Merino’s introduction at half-time.
That match continued a return to form for Gabriel Martinelli, who was named man of the match for an energetic display. “He looked really sharp, really fresh,” said Arteta.
Whoever Arteta selects will have the daunting task of attempting to unlock the Premier League’s best defence this season.
Liverpool have conceded a league-best three Premier League goals this campaign, with Slot winning 11 of his first 12 matches in all competitions at the helm.
