Chris Sutton has given his prediction for the huge Premier League showdown between Arsenal and Liverpool on Sunday, and he reckons there’ll be a decisive result.
The Reds go into the game with a five-point lead at the summit, so victory for them at the Emirates Stadium could leave the Gunners with a very tall order to claw back the gap in the title race. Conversely, a home win would represent a big statement from Mikel Arteta’s side.
It’s a fixture which could polarise opinion among punters placing bets with online casinos and bookmakers, and the former Blackburn striker is expecting a closely-fought contest in north London tomorrow.
In his Premier League predictions for BBC Sport, Sutton wrote: “We’ve already seen how close it is between these two sides when they’ve met before this season, and the Gunners missed a load of chances when Liverpool came to the Emirates and won in the FA Cup last month.
“Mikel Arteta’s side still don’t have a centre-forward but, this time, I think they will finish some of the opportunities they create.
“I’m still not entirely sure why I am going with Arsenal to win this game, because Liverpool will score too, but the Gunners definitely need the points more and I think they will just about do enough to get them. 2-1.”
Liverpool have posted some emphatic wins over Arsenal during Jurgen Klopp’s reign, but their contests have been much closer affairs over the past couple of years, with two draws and a 3-2 Gunners win in their three previous Premier League meetings.
The Reds struck a psychological blow at the Emirates last month with victory in the FA Cup as the home side paid the price for their profligacy that evening, and we’ve been in imperious form since the 1-1 draw against Mikel Arteta’s side just before Christmas.
However, the north Londoners have got their title ambitions back on track after a slump during the festive/New Year period, and as Sutton said, they badly need a result tomorrow to ensure they don’t disappear in LFC’s rear view mirror.
A draw away to a title rival when Liverpool already have a five-point lead at the Premier League summit would be a decent result on the face of it, but we’ve seen in previous years how Manchester City rattle off a succession of wins in the second half of the season.
Klopp has acknowledged that publicly, and you can be sure that he won’t be content with merely picking up a point on Sunday.
We’ll disagree with Sutton in that we fancy the Reds to take a result back to Merseyside, but we also expect it to be a very close contest.