A mouthwatering clash between two of England’s bigger teams awaits us under the mesmerizing atmosphere of the Emirates Stadium in north London on Monday evening, as Arsenal meet Liverpool.
Arsenal started the season in stuttering form with a shock opening day defeat at home to West Ham United (0-2) followed by a far from convincing 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace last weekend.
The Merseysiders, on the other hand, head to the Emirates with a 100 per cent record in the season thus far. Liverpool opened their new season with a 1-0 victory over Stoke City and followed that up with a hard-fought 1-0 win at home against the Premier League new boys Bournemouth.
We have for few more hours to go to see if the Gunners can leave the disappointment behind for a better show or will Brendan Rodgers’ side make it three from three?
Meanwhile, let’s have a look at the rivalry through the prism of history.
- Arsenal have a tremendous victory record at home. They have won 14 out of 15 League games played against Liverpool at home (W8 D6 L1).
- Matches between Arsenal and Liverpool Arsenal have seen more hat-tricks (five) being scored than any other fixture in the Premier League history.
- Only Manchester United have secured more victories (21) over Arsenal than Liverpool (16).
- The Gunners have lost their opening two home matches of a Premier League campaign for the third time in history. The earlier two incidents came in 1908-09 and 1949-50.
- Arsenal have a goal conversion rate of only 3% despite attempting a league-high 40 shots in the first two rounds of fixtures.
- Liverpool have only allowed their opponents three shots on target in their two Premier League games in 2015-16 so far; fewer than any other side.
- The Reds secured only one point from their four away games against the top four clubs in the 2014-15 campaign.
- Olivier Giroud’s will be making his 100th league appearance and has scored 42 goals for the Gunners so far. Only Thierry Henry (59), Ian Wright (56) and Emmanuel Adebayor (44) has scored more goals in their first 100 league appearances for the club.
- Mesut Ozil created 3.61 chances per game on average in the 2014-15 campaign – no other player was able to match this ratio.
- Christian Benteke has scored 12 goals in his last 13 Premier League appearances.
- Simon Mignolet has kept 11 clean sheets in 2015 – more than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League.
- Brendan Rodgers is winless in all four Premier League away matches as a manager against Arsenal (D1, L3). He only avoided defeat when his Liverpool team drew 2-2 in January 2013.
- Michael Oliver will officiate Monday’s encounter after refereeing two of the last three meetings between the clubs. Arsenal have lost a majority of the matches played under his supervision.
