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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he wants to end the Anfield hoodoo, targeting a win against Liverpool on Sunday that would keep the Gunners on course to win the Premier League title.
Arteta’s side lead Manchester City by eight points at the top of the table ahead of the weekend fixtures, with Pep Guardiola’s team taking on bottom-of-the-table Southampton on Saturday.
Anfield poses a major challenge for Arsenal as they have not won a league game there since Arteta played in a 2-0 win in 2012.
Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have won the past six league meetings between the sides at home by a combined score of 22-4. But Liverpool are currently in eighth place in the table, 29 points behind the Gunners.
“We have to enjoy it,” Arteta said on Friday. “We really need to embrace the moment and go for it.
“The team is really full of enthusiasm and positivity and we know we have a big challenge but a big opportunity to go to Anfield and do something we haven’t done for many years. That is what is driving the team in the last few days.
“We know what we have to do. We’ve played in the toughest places.”
Arsenal have struggled to score at Anfield on their last few visits and Arteta said he was glad to have January signing Leandro Trossard in the side, with the Belgian netting a hat-trick for Brighton and Hove Albion at Liverpool earlier this season.
“It’s great to have a player that has experienced something really nice and positive at that stadium. He was a crucial player that day and it was a beautiful game to watch,” Arteta said.
“That’s what we need, players with a lot of belief on that pitch so we can go there and win it.”
Arteta said Bukayo Saka is back in contention to start while one of his injured players could return. The Spanish manager refused to divulge the player’s name, although defender William Saliba is expected to return after missing two games.
Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Klopp insists he is remaining calm as a top-four finish continues to drift out of sight due to his side’s inconsistent form.
The Reds boss said the wholesale changes made in midweek against Chelsea were not intended to send a message to under-performing players after an abject second-half performance at Manchester City where they conceded three goals to lose 4-1.
For the goalless draw at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, Klopp removed more than half of that team, dropping the likes of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, but while the City display partly influenced his thinking, it was not intended to provoke a response.
“We had now one proper session since then and the boys don’t show me that they don’t want it or whatever, not at all,” he said.
“(It’s not) ‘Why have you left me out?’. This is not the situation we are in.”
Asked how much his team selection was a reaction to the City game and how much was as a result of three games in a week, Klopp added: “We had a game against City, which is an influence both physically and performance-wise, and then we have a game three days later so it is both.”
