Arsenal FC vs Liverpool FC
FA Cup: 3rd Round
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Referee: John Brooks, Assistants: Lee Betts & Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth Official: Josh Smith
VAR: Simon Hooper, Assistants: David Coote & Adrian Homes
If the match ends in a draw there will be a replay rather than extra-time and penalties
I love the FA Cup.
I love the FA Cup is not a sentence that I thought I would be saying as an 8 year old boy experiencing his first true taste of the gut wrenching pain that football can bring when an 85th minute Eric Cantona volley broke my heart, 'they might still equalise love' my Mum said to be but even at 8 years old I knew enough of football to know that it was done. I'd spent the weeks leading up to the match playing out various scenarios on the Subbuteo Pitch, they all ended in Liverpool lifting the trophy and none of them ended with Cantona and his upward collar getting anywhere near the score sheet, my first taste of reality vs expectation as well, then.
The FA Cup became somewhat of an obssession for me after that as a jilted lover, there were several more years of heart-ache to follow before we'd finally win it, including a lesson that in football, history can repeat itself, courtesy of 89th and 92nd minute goals from Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer respectively, reversing Michael Owen's early goal at Old Trafford to result in more injury time pain at the hands of those bastards.
I'd have to wait 5 years from that horrific day at Wembley in 1996 to
'finally' see us win the famous old trophy, footballing first world problems is probably what fans of clubs less fortunate as ourselves might say, but 5 years is a long time for a child. This brings me nicely onto Sunday's opponents, the competition's most frequent winners with 14 successes, Arsenal FC. From one of my worst ever footballing moments then, to one of my happiest - Michael Owen running onto a first class Paddy pass before finishing with aplomb to the left of the out-stretched David Seaman, bedlam, memories made which will never be forgotten. We've played Arsenal 3 times in the cup since then and lost all 3, Arsenal's impeccable observance of Anfield's demand for The Truth via a mosiac in 2007 is something which I'll always remember.
Arsenal will wear their white 'No More Red' kit for the 3rd consecutive season, the kit was launched was launched in January 2022 to support the long-standing work undertaken by Arsenal to help keep young people safe from knife crime and youth violence. Particualrly poignant given the recent incident in Liverpool on 27th December involving a young-man of 21 being admitted to hospital with critical injuries having been stabbed in Liverpool City Centre. Liverpool themselves will wear Purple.
This round of the tournament often brings with it selection headaches, the sterner the opposition the trickier the dilemma is a good rule of thumb and this fixture in particular is quite difficult to call. Arsenal's injured first-teamers include Jurrien Timber, Fabio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko, the latter with a calf injury which is expected to be resolved in time for this fixture, Arsenal will also be without midfielder Mohamed Elneny who will join up with Mo Salah in the Egypt squad for the AFCON. Liverpool's injury list is somewhat longer with Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic, Ben Doak, Joel Matip and Kostas Tsimikas confirmed absentees, Dominik Szboszlai is also likely to be absent having been forced off with a hamstring injury on Monday night although the extent of that injury is yet to be confirmed. We will of course also be missing Mohammad Salah and Wataru Endo who will be representing their nations at the AFCON and Asia Cup respectively.
Despite my love of the tournament, the reality is that most would agree that objectively the FA Cup represents Liverpool's 4th priority at present, with both a somewhat unexpected tilt at the title and a Europa League campaign calling rank in terms of prestige, whilst our progression to the semi-final of the League Cup arguably does so in terms of progression with only 3 matches separating the reds from more Wembley memories. There has been an undercurrent of this 'not being the worst one to lose' which is entirely understandable given the Red's current assault on 3 fronts and the fact that the 4th Round of the tournament takes place on the weekend of 27th January, adding yet another fixture that the Reds would be without Salah and Endo within an already busy January. That said, you would hope that should we progress to the next round that the draw might be a little kinder, should we progress beyond that point there is then a full month until the Fifth Round and Liverpool would surely fancy their chances knowing that, at the very least, one of the favourites in Arsenal had been eliminated.
Injuries to key players and, key positions, would, you'd think, limit quite how strong Klopp can go on Sunday and preservation over performance is likely to play at least some of the role in the manager's team selection, understandably so even if it is also a touch frustrating. I'm usually quite good at predicting team selections but I do feel that this one is particualrly difficult to call, there are question marks over selections in every section of the pitch, particularly as to whether Caoimhin Kelleher or Alisson Becker play in goal, as well as both full-back positions, you would imagine that Joe Gomez will be wrapped in cotton-wool such are our fleeting options at left-back, Owen Beck's recent recall from his loan spell at Dundee could provide an alternative, similarly Conor Bradley presents an option to rest Trent's legs at right-back, my own personal view is that Beck will play over Gomez with Trent playing at right back, I feel that playing two young fullbacks against, potentially Martinelli and Saka (depending on how strong Arteta himself goes,) may leave us a touch too vulnerable and throwing young players to the lions is unlikely to be beneficial for their development, or our chances of progression. Question marks remain over the rest of the pitch with the reds, again, short of options in midfield owing to Endo's absence and Szoboszlai's likely injury, does the manager risk MacAllister who has only recently returned from injury himself, or does he turn to alternatives? Ryan Gravenberch is, you'd think, a certainty to start so the question then moves onto who will accompany him, I would go with Jones and MacAllister myself, but then I don't have to answer the questions if one of them gets injured.
Arteta, you'd think, will be keen to put the brakes on what has been a slightly alarming run of form which began with a 1-0 defeat at Villa Park and was followed by 1 win in their next 4 matches, including 2 defeats at the hands of West Ham and Fulham. A victory in front of the home fans against a side as big as Liverpool would represent an opportunity to get their form back on track, Arteta may be able to use it to rally the troops both in the dressing room and on the stands and, the fact that the reds would have likely fieleded a less than full-strength side would quickly be forgotten, but the result in the minds of the players and fans would remain, wins against sides like Liverpool don't come around too often, it's not an opportunity to be missed. Arsenal also do not have a 2 legged League Cup Semi Final to worry about, nor do they have a fixture next weekend as they, along with ourselves, have a free weekend. With that in mind I expect them to go strong, potentially as strong as possible and I do think Klopp will reluctantly respond to that in his selection as a defeat is one thing, a battering would be another and these are still one of the top sides in the division, even with recent form in mind.
7,600 of us will be in the corner of the Clock End at the Emirates on Sunday, the atmosphere should be decent and I'm really hopeful that Klopp can mastermind a way for us to come out on top. Logic tells you its our fourth priority, the bookies will tell you that Arsenal are roughly 2.5 times more likely to win the match than we are, but logic goes out of the window in football sometimes and if there's anyone I'd trust to find a way to get a win on Sunday it's this manager and these players, they've done it relentlessly, year after year since the manager arrived, to borrow a phrase from the Anfield Wrap's excellent show,
footballing miracles on a weekly basis, season after season', let's have another one, then.
