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For weeks now, much of the media discourse around our start to the season has centred around the idea that we've played nobody of any note yet. While it's true that the likes of Milan and Chelsea in particular had far stronger teams many moons ago, it's not like they've suddenly turned into pub sides. We now face one of the league's strongest sides in Arsenal, and much of the media discourse makes it sound like they'll end up fielding their under-10s for this one, such is their injury list. Basically, if we do get a great result we'll be damned with faint praise. Arsenal do indeed have a number of players out, but on that front much of their progress over the last couple of years is due to how little compared to others they've been impacted by injury. They've also got knocked out of all the cups pretty early, giving them ample time between matches too. It's about time they had some shitty luck with injuries. Obviously they are not shit, and we've seen before how they can really get on top of us when we lack concentration or energy. Odegaard's missed a couple of months or so now, and he is a key figure in their engine room. Saliba is suspended, and they apparently have question marks over the likes of Calafiori. Saka's another who is apparently nursing an injury, but he dies about 10 times every game only to recover like Lazarus, so take it with a pinch of salt that he won't be available. Our keys to handling Arsenal come down to making sure players like Trossard and Martinelli don't do what they've done to us previously, and that we remain steadfast when defending set-pieces. As I write, I don't know of any fresh fitness concerns among our squad. Ali and Harvey are still out. Not sure about Conor, and we can assume that Fede will be absent as he acclimatises to Slot's demands in training. Hopefully Diogo is at least a bench option and that his rib injury is just bruising. Macca took a real cracker to the knacker in Leipzig, so hopefully he can stop walking around like John Wayne by Friday at least! We can go to the Emirates and do what we did in the cup back in January, but we'll need to make sure we cut out the mistakes, deal with all the shithousery and be clinical with everything we create. A great result doesn't yet signify how the rest of the season will pan out, so all we need to do is focus on one game at a time and see how we go. How have our previous managers got on in their first away fixture against Arsenal? It's not that bad actually. Souness...31/01/1993...Arsenal 0-1 Liverpool (Barnes pen) Evans...26/03/1994...Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool Houllier...09/01/1999...Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool Benitez...08/05/2005...Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool (Gerrard) Hodgson...N/A Dalglish...17/04/2011...Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool (Kuyt pen) Rodgers...30/01/2013...Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool (Suarez, Henderson) Klopp...14/08/2016...Arsenal 3-4 Liverpool (Coutinho 2, Lallana, Mane) I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!