Liverpool vs Arsenal: A showdown of classics at Anfield

Liverpool vs Arsenal; it’s going to be a lockdown at Anfield this evening between Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta.

A back-to-back EPL classic game for Liverpool vs Arsenal at the Anfield stadium this evening is what to summarize Jurgen Klopp’s tactical astuteness of the season and year as a whole. 

The Jurgen Klopp-led side were forced to a barren draw at Anfield by Manchester United last Sunday to dim their chances of taking the top spot. The first time the Reds would score in a home game after a barren draw against Manchester United.  

Moreso, Klopp would try to prevent the 2021 dilemma where he failed to win back-to-back games at Anfield. They played a 2-2 home draw against Brighton and Manchester City. 

Meanwhile, it’s another time for Klopp to usurp the first spot a few hours before Christmas as he welcomes Mikel Arteta to Anfield. 

This is the second time both teams will be meeting this year after a 2-2 draw at Anfield. Meanwhile, Arteta and Klopp have met four times in 2022 and the Reds got an advantage winning twice and a win for Arsenal with both sides sharing spoils once. 

Arsenal needs this game to maintain the status quo while Liverpool can’t afford to drop another point at Anfield. 

Side attraction

More fouls to be recorded: If there is anything certain in today’s game is tactical fouls that are bound to occur. 

According to stats, Arsenal have recorded more tactical fouls that led to yellow card in the EPL this season with Liverpool coming close as third. 

Although Arsenal’s total fouls are 162 lower and 22 yellow cards than clubs like Everton or Liverpool who are second and third, yet, those offenses have led to more yellow cards than others. Arsenal averaged a yellow card every 7.4 fouls which also means 1.4 yellow cards per game. 

“Arsenal had received a yellow card every 7.4 fouls, which puts them top of the leaderboard for that metric, and Liverpool were third at a booking every 6.7 fouls,” The Athletic. 

Despite their offensive nature, Arsenal has been disciplined in their half, barely committing any fouls and most cases that warranted a yellow card have always been while halting a counterattack. 

However, the counter-pressing of Liverpool has seen their forwards committing more fouls than defenders. Luis Diaz has committed 23 fouls although with no yellow cards followed by Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo who have fouled a player 19 and 15 times with a caution each in the whole process. 

Despite Arsenal and Liverpool high number of fouls, they have recorded fewer yellow cards compared to Aston Villa who has been penalised 18 times. Arsenal had nine while Liverpool had 12 yellow cards. 

Expect goals 

Liverpool is a very high-goalscoring side and it reflected in their last 15 meetings with Arsenal where the Reds scored 43 out of the total 64 goals registered. 

Liverpool have scored three or more goals in 10 out of their last 15 meetings with topflight clubs. 

In their last 10 games at Anfield, they scored a minimum of three goals in eiht matches while the other two games produced two goals with a total of 34 goals staying unbeaten in all those fixtures. 

Meanwhile, Arsenal have scored in their last five EPL games except for one which was against Aston Villa at Villa Park.