Jurgen Klopp is not taking anything for granted despite Liverpool beating Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. But a repeat of the win that knocked the Gunners out of the FA Cup would be a huge title opportunity for Mikel Arteta. Liverpool will have three points and an eight-point lead with 15 games to play, which will be a very important amount.
Even if Liverpool collapsed, Manchester City had a lot to overcome. This is a must win for Arsenal. The cup game against Liverpool gave some hope, albeit against a different team, but it was also a big problem. Arsenal lost 2-0 in the FA Cup despite recording 1.76 expected goals against Liverpool’s 0.64. The Gunners missed five key chances and the Reds found the back of the net twice without reply. The opposing chances in front of goal are not surprising either.
Bukayo Saka scored 10 goals in all competitions. That’s more goals than any other Arsenal player. Gabriel Jesus has eight, while Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard have seven. To reach 20 goals in all competitions at this stage of the campaign would have required a massive comeback from everyone, even the keepers. And Liverpool are scoring at will, scoring 14 goals in their last four games.
Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota have scored 18 and 13 goals respectively (despite being ruled out through injury/AFCON) and both need to reach 20 goals. Cody Gakpo has 9 and Luis Diaz has 8. Curtis Jones and Dominic Sbosboszlai each have five. The most interesting story revolves around Darwin Nunez. The Uruguayan has missed more chances than most players and is unhappy with his penalty miss in midweek, but his tally of 11 goals makes him Liverpool’s third top scorer.
Nunez needs to score more often – he once went 12 games without a goal and hasn’t scored at Anfield since October’s win over Nottingham Forest – but he’s still doing better than most players. No Arsenal player has scored that many goals, so it’s not a bad platform to think they could easily explode. After all, it does almost everything well and delivers more than just goals.
