Arsenal vs Liverpool Carabao Cup preview: How to watch, lineups, selection, & prediction

Arsenal have only just finished licking their Manchester City shaped wounds before they’re back in action on Thursday to they host Liverpool in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. Here is the match preview.

There is a great deal to be enthused about following the events of last weekend. Mikel Arteta’s side, albeit without Mikel Arteta, put in their best performance for years as they lost in heartbreaking fashion against the reigning champions.

Dominating the first half and deservedly getting in front, it all came tumbling down for the Gunners as a crazy four-minute spell saw Granit Xhaka concede a penalty, Gabriel Martinelli miss an open goal and Gabriel receive his marching orders.

That period turned the tide of the match. Yet even with ten men Arsenal showed immense bravery to continue trying to push for a winning goal only to be undone in the third minute of stoppage time.

Arsenal vs Liverpool preview: Carabao Cup semi-final first leg tie as Gunners host Klopp’s depleted Reds at Emirates Stadium

While it’s a performance that produced zero points, it was littered with positive points.

And the hope is that this level can be matched when Arsenal come up against the best sides in the country again. Their next game? Liverpool at home, of course.

Obliterating League One Sunderland 5-1 in the quarter-finals set up a mouthwatering tie with Jurgen Klopp’s men, Arteta’s side are aiming to add silverware to their ultimate goal of returning to the Champions League.

Temporarily bidding farewell to four players as Thomas Partey, Nicolas Pepe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mohamed Elneny take part in AFCON, despite the numerical difference it is undoubtedly the Reds who are impacted more: Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita have all jetted off to Cameroon.

Klopp has always shown more willingness to blood academy stars in his teams for the Carabao Cup, but with it reaching the semi-final stage there is no way that this Arsenal side can take their foot off the gas.

This is set up to be an invigorating first leg.

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Thursday 6 January
What Time Is Kick Off? 19:45 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? Emirates Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? Sky Sports Main Event (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? Michael Oliver

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Arsenal Team News vs Liverpool – Arteta Back?

The obvious absentees for Arsenal are the aforementioned quartet, even if one of them hasn’t been in the picture for six matches now.

Of the four the standout miss is Partey. He had his best game in an Arsenal shirt in the defeat to Man City and with him building up some form over recent weeks it’s bitterly disappointing that he has to leave at this very minute.

We wish all four of them the best of luck in Cameroon.

What about the manager? Absent from the touchline against City having tested positive for Covid, Albert Stuivenberg admitted he had ‘no clue’ whether Arteta would be back for the midweek clash, but the club have been boosted by the news that he is not only set to be in the dugout, but also take training on Wednesday.

Other than that Arsenal appear to have a fit squad to choose from with some other previous absentees through Covid – Chambers, Cedric, Maitland-Niles and Tomiyasu – all returning. Eddie Nketiah missed the City game having contracted the virus and Liverpool might come too soon for him.

As for the visitors, they look set to be without nine players for the first leg, with the aforementioned AFCON trio joined by Nat Phillips, Harvey Elliott and Thiago, all of whom are injured.

Then there are Covid absences for the Reds to deal with, as Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino and Joel Matip all tested positive prior to their 2-2 draw with Chelsea which looks set to rule them out of the game. Klopp, who was tested positive, looks likely to be absent from the touchline once again.

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Arsenal Predicted Lineup to Face Liverpool – Sambi in for Partey?

Arsenal: Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Holding, Tierney; Sambi, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Lacazette

Liverpool: Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Jones, Fabinho, Henderson; Gordon, Jota, Oxlade-Chamberlain

Arsenal vs Liverpool Score Prediction

This is an excellent time for Arsenal to be playing Liverpool. Given the state of the squads of all four team left in the competition, Liverpool right now look the weakest.

Losing their two best forwards, they have another seven players unavailable for a variety of reasons and Klopp has always been fond of fielding academy stars in these matches. It is still Liverpool, but it is a heavily depleted Liverpool at that.

As for Arsenal, there is no reason why Arteta can’t field another strong side in this match. The way the fixtures are playing out means it’s FA Cup action against a Championship side after this, so he can heavily rotate there having gone strong here, and then ideally do a blend for the return leg at Anfield by which time Arsenal will be 4-0 up on aggregate.

We wish.

In all seriousness, this is a wonderful opportunity to get a strong lead for the return leg as just a few days after Anfield Arsenal are away at Tottenham in an immeasurably huge Premier League match in both clubs’ seasons.

Despite the loss at City, the Gunners are in fine form and they will remain confident in their ability having undeservedly lost out in a match they should have secured at least a point from. That mad four-minute spell turned the game. There has been a lot of referee blaming, but the mistakes were their own.

Arsenal should be confident.

Score Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool