Liverpool vs Arsenal: How the team’s weakness could be their strength

Premier League football is back at last. All the Arsenal fans watching what was actually quite an exciting international break have been buzzing for the return of domestic action to see Mikel Arteta’s side again.

Then everyone remembered that it’s Liverpool. At Anfield. Under the floodlights.

Suddenly the excitement levels dropped somewhat. But over the years of annual drubbings the supporters have grown thick skin. Losing away at a ‘big six’ side has become the norm. It’s still desperately painful, mind you.

What Arsenal have now is some renewed optimism. Then again, those words have been used numerous times in conjunction with trips to the red half of Merseyside, and two points in the past eight league matches at Anfield are all that there is to show for it.

Liverpool vs Arsenal: The Gunners’ weakness of being negative when going in front could be morphed into an effective tactical strategy at Anfield

But this is a team on the up, brimming with confidence, sitting fifth in the Premier League table and unbeaten in ten matches across all competitions. There is belief of securing a result, no matter how incomplete the team is in certain departments and having factored in how devastating this Liverpool side truly is.

Arteta has been building over the summer and this squad of players is nothing like those that have made the journey north and left empty handed for almost a decade. From back to front there are exciting players, talented individuals and a collective spirit.

The new signings have made a magnificent impact, playing a substantial role in making Arsenal more solid, structured and fluid.

Not everything is where it needs to be, however, and one of the team’s primary weaknesses is their attitude and response to going in front. Ironically, that might work to their advantage on Saturday.

We will learn a lot about the confidence of this group by how they start this game. Over the past few weeks there has been a growing trend that has become so frequent that any less constitutes something of a shock: Arsenal fly out of the traps, press high and push their centre-backs way up to the halfway line.

This front-footed and assertive approach has seen the Gunners blitz teams away and effectively win matches inside 20 minutes. On show against Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Leicester, this all guns blazing mantra is both exhilarating in its blink of an eye execution, and then nail-biting. Arsenal have secured these leads and then sat on them.

So how will this work in their favour?

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Arsenal’s Quick Starts and Structured Defence Can be Tweaked

Quite a lot needs to fall into place on Saturday. Of this there is no shying away from.

The idea that Arsenal can replicate their bombastic starts to matches at Anfield, grab the early goal they desire and then invite waves of attacks from a forward line boasting the best player in the world and a defence that is home to the most creative player in the division is not a simple, nor a wise, solution.

When glancing at where Liverpool are at their weakest, however, it is in the spaces to exploit behind their lines and the struggles their midfield has against low blocks. Fabinho, for all his brilliance, can take too many touches when he has time and space.

Arsenal have taken the lead twice in the past two Premier League matches at Anfield and won neither. Not even drawn. With a newfound aggression in how they start, getting their noses in front places the match into a game state that does not suit Liverpool.

They can score at any time, lead all the statistics for collective xG/90, xA/90 as well as individually, and have the best player in the world – has that been mentioned yet?

Were it to transpire that Arsenal maintain their record of early goals, as much as the team need to iron out the negativity they show once doing so – this falls on the manager, inexperience and the rushing of play once going in front – the defensive steel they’ve shown could play into their advantage.

It’s one thing dropping off and showing no ambition on the ball for 70 or so minutes when you’re effectively waiting for Liverpool to score, and it’s another seeking to exploit that very game state in a way that directly attacks the few weaknesses Klopp’s side have.

West Ham did this masterfully. Scoring after four minutes, the two midfielders in Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice were outstanding in protecting their back four, and with the Reds’ full-back pushing high and wide, once the ball was turned over they broke with blistering pace in getting the ball from back to front as quickly as possible.

Arsenal currently have what could be described as an inferiority complex; this subconscious fear having gone in front. Finding a way to channel that into an effective gameplan may bizarrely turn their most notable weakness into a strength away at Anfield.

Arteta is moulding this team to his liking but they are some way off dominating matches from start to finish, even less so against Klopp’s Liverpool. Channeling where they are now as a team into a strategy might, somewhat bizarrely, work in their favour.