Liverpool vs Arsenal: A Title Race on the Line
Liverpool and Arsenal do not share titles at Anfield. Not on days like this.
Paul Merson is clear: if Liverpool are serious about chasing the Premier League crown, they have to beat Arsenal on Sunday. Not draw. Beat them.
Andoni Iraola’s side welcome the champions in the Super Sunday spotlight, kick-off 4.30pm, with Liverpool six points adrift of joint-leaders Arsenal and Man City. The margins are already tight. Drop more ground here and the gap starts to look like a chasm.
A title race on the line
Liverpool arrive on a five-game winning run, starting to “cook a little bit,” as Merson puts it. The rhythm is back, the crowd will be feral, and Anfield on a big league afternoon still feels like the most unforgiving arena in English football.
But the table does not care about noise.
“If they don't win, they stay six points behind at least and still have to go to the Emirates,” Merson warns. That is the cold reality. Stay six back now and you’re effectively asking Arsenal to lose two games while you go perfect. And that’s before you factor in Liverpool’s own bumps to come.
“Given Liverpool will lose more games this season,” he says, “you're then asking Arsenal to lose three or four games for the rest of the season. That's a lot of games.”
So the equation is brutal. Win, and Liverpool drag themselves into the fight. Fail, and the title starts to slip from view before winter has even bitten properly.
Yet this isn’t just a free swing. “It's also must-not-lose for Liverpool as they still need to stay on track for the Champions League places.” A defeat doesn’t just damage dreams of first place; it drags them into a different kind of race altogether.
Arsenal’s rare Anfield chance
Arsenal, unbeaten in six, walk into a ground that has mocked them for more than a decade. Their last league win at Anfield came in 2012. Mikel Arteta was still in midfield then. Now he stands in the technical area trying to exorcise that record.
Merson could barely believe the stat. “The last time Arsenal won a game at Liverpool in the league was in 2012… now he's the manager!” It’s the kind of historical weight that seeps into players’ heads the moment they step off the bus.
That’s why he calls it a must-not-lose for Arsenal as well. The league leaders don’t need to be spectacular here; they just need to be stubborn. “Just don't get beat,” is his message. Survive Anfield and the road ahead opens up.
Because if Arsenal do more than that? If they actually win?
“If Arsenal go and win against Liverpool, that could nearly be it for the Premier League title,” Merson says. “You then start to think: who's going to go and beat them?”
Look at their schedule and you see his point. “This Sunday is one of only three or four difficult games Arsenal have got this season,” he argues. Man City away. Liverpool away. Chelsea away when they’re hot. Then the tricky, awkward ones: Brighton, Brentford, the sides who can bloody noses and then go and trip up your rivals later in the season.
Take three points at Anfield and Arsenal don’t just bank a statement win. They strip away one of the few remaining fixtures that genuinely scare them.
Saka, November and the toll of a title push
All of this collides with a brutal stretch in Arsenal’s calendar. “What a November Arsenal have,” Merson says. “They've got a hard month, including the start of December. You'll know by December 13 if Arsenal will win the Premier League.”
That’s not hyperbole. It’s the old dressing-room line: after the hard games come the easy games. Survive this block with momentum intact and the run-in looks far kinder.
Which is why Bukayo Saka’s fitness looms so large.
“If Bukayo Saka is injured for this period, he's going to be missed,” Merson insists. There’s been talk he hasn’t hit top gear, but Merson looks at something else entirely. “People say he isn't playing well, I think he's a decision-maker – he constantly makes those right decisions week in, week out.”
You don’t replace that easily. You can mimic the dribbles, the step-overs, the width. You can’t copy the calm choice in the 88th minute when legs are gone and minds are scrambled.
Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze are the names pushed forward to fill the void. Talented, fearless, capable of lighting up a game in a moment. But this is different. “It's all well and good them coming in and playing for a couple, then sitting out for a couple,” Merson says, “but when you're asking them to play six to eight weeks on the trot, that's a real tester. That's where it might take its toll.”
This is where careers either harden or fray. The constant demand. The expectation that every weekend, every stadium, you deliver like a star.
It might yet be the making of them. “They know they're going to play and they can relax and go and express themselves, which is what you want – especially with Eze.” No uncertainty, no wondering if one bad half means the bench. Just trust and responsibility.
And with Max Dowman set to be suspended, that responsibility only grows. The safety net thins. The squad gets stretched.
So it circles back to Anfield. To a Sunday that feels bigger than the calendar suggests. Liverpool fighting to keep the title race alive. Arsenal trying to slam the door on it before Christmas.
Someone’s season is about to change. The question is whose.
