Arsenal will welcome fierce rivals Liverpool this weekend to the Emirates, with the hopes of making a huge impression in the top flight of English football. The Gunners have made a decent start to the campaign under new manager Unai Emery and this could be the best opportunity that they now will have to declare themselves as serious title contenders, if they can pick up all three points on Saturday evening.
Anyone who has seen Arsenal playing in the current campaign would have noticed that Unai Emery has applied one tactic really well in recent times. The former PSG boss has used Alexandre Lacazette initially to run at defences with all his strength and trickery and then fed the tired back-lines to Aubameyang to feast on.
The player has really made a huge impression with his cameos and has been all over the news and social media for his recent exploits, scoring some quick goals. He was also not happy when taken off against Crystal Palace in the last game, due to the kind of form that he is in and his team really did need him to stay on.
With that being said, why did Emery elect to play him from the start? The fans must have wondered, for sure.
However, the reason is simple. With the game against the Reds coming up, the tactic that has brought the Spaniard a lot of success with the north London giants will clearly not work. Whether the fans appreciate the goalscoring form that Aubameyang is in, or not, it is a fact that Emery will need both his attackers to be in the game from the very beginning against Jurgen Klopp’s side, if they wish to get something out of it.
Liverpool is a dominating team that loves to attack and the only way to break such a side is by pushing for early goals and taking the game to them. If Arsenal try to sit back and defend initially at home, the Kops will just take over the game and push for an easy win. They have a strong midfield that can control any match, if allowed to do so.
For that purpose, the Londoners must look to be a threat to their opponents from the very-go, which will make them take a step backwards and defend deeper. If that does happen, the route to many of their attacks could run dry and the likes of Salah and Mane, might not really get too involved in the match.
Attack is the best form of defence and it will take a strong, solid performance from the Londoners to salvage something out of the match. Both teams are in good overall form at present and will want to keep their record of being undefeated in a decent number of games going on.
Hopefully, Emery’s plan works out, though he does have the fire-power on the bench too and can use the likes of Welbeck and co. to strike a blow, if the Englishman’s services are needed in the game. However, that will be a risk he will not really want to take, unless actually needed to. What plan he has now, will have to wait and watch.
