Liverpool host Arsenal in the biggest Premier League game of Matchday 9. We look ahead to Sunday’s Anfield encounter by picking out five key subplots.

Getting knocked out of the EFL Cup by fourth-tier Fleetwood Town this week was one of the biggest shocks in the competition’s recent history, but it has otherwise been a pretty solid season for Arsenal.

The 3-0 loss at Brighton & Hove Albion has been the only blemish to the start of their Premier League title defence.

The reigning champions have won each of their other seven league games, recovering from that chastening loss on the south coast last month by beating Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Everton since.

Arguably their biggest test yet comes on Sunday, though, when they travel to Anfield to take on a Liverpool side who seem to be finding their feet under Andoni Iraola.

The Reds also suffered a disappointing 3-0 loss recently, at home to Manchester City, but three of their last four league outings have been impressive victories over Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton.

Liverpool’s form continued on Wednesday as they sealed their place in the League Cup quarter-finals, beating Chelsea on penalties after a 1-1 draw at Anfield. They will be hoping their recent momentum counts for something when they host the champions.

It promises to be a big game in a charged atmosphere on Sunday, and ahead of it, we’ve picked out five potentially important subplots.

Liverpool Rarely Beat Arsenal, But Arsenal Struggle to Win at Anfield

As you would expect between two of the best teams in Europe over recent years, Liverpool and Arsenal games are often very closely contested.

The Reds have won just one of their last eight Premier League games against the Gunners (D5 L2), which was their 1-0 home victory last season, thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s incredible free-kick.

Meanwhile, Arsenal are winless in their last 13 away league games against Liverpool (D5 L8) since a 2-0 victory in 2012-13. They have never gone 14 winless at Anfield in their league history, also going 13 between 1975-76 and 1987-88, a run that was broken by that iconic 2-0 final-day victory in 1988-89 that pinched the Division 1 title.

This could be a famous day for Arsenal. They are just one off reaching 300 Premier League away wins, which would make them just the second team to reach the landmark in the competition after Manchester United (328).

Unfortunately for them, they will be playing in the stadium where they have their worst win rate in the Premier League. At no ground they’ve visited at least 10 times do they have a lower win rate than Anfield, with just six victories in 34 trips (18%).

Iraola goes into the game having lost only two of his 27 Premier League games in 2026 (W12 D13).

One of those was the defeat to City in which his side were arguably the better team until a questionable red card for Ryan Gravenberch turned the game on its head. The other was at home to Arsenal when he was still Bournemouth boss back in January.

Nevertheless, it’s the lowest defeat percentage (7%) for a manager in a single calendar year (min. 20 games) since Jürgen Klopp lost just one of his 37 games in 2019 (3%). His Basque compatriot Mikel Arteta will be looking to increase that percentage on Sunday.

Something has got to give… unless it’s a draw.

Where Will Arsenal’s Goals Come From?

There is very little to criticise Arsenal for. They are objectively a supremely good team, proven by their Premier League title win last season, and coming within a penalty shootout of following that up with Champions League success.

However, it still feels like they aren’t as dangerous in attack as you’d often expect of a top team.

Of course, their outstanding defence means they don’t always need to score more than once, but is it sustainable?

Despite seven wins from eight games, four teams have scored more goals than Arsenal in the Premier League this season (13), while only eight teams have had fewer shots (107).

They will come up against a Liverpool side who have kept four clean sheets in their last six Premier League games; no other side has more since the start of September, while last season, the Reds were the only side to stop the Gunners from scoring in both of their league meetings (1-0 at Anfield, 0-0 at the Emirates).

Only three teams have conceded fewer goals than Liverpool in the Premier League this season (8), and they would have the joint-best defensive record along with Arsenal if it wasn’t for the three they allowed after going down to 10 men against City.

Yes, fine, saying “they’d have conceded fewer if it weren’t for the goals they have conceded” is a bit of a stretch, but with 11 men on the pitch, Liverpool look relatively strong defensively.

On top of that, only Arsenal (6.5) have a lower expected goals on target (xGOT) conceded total than Liverpool (7.8), which means that, based on the goalmouth location of shots they’ve both faced, these are the two teams that have allowed the least threatening shots in the division.

It will still be exciting, though, we hope…

Can Liverpool’s All-Star Attack Trouble the Best Defence in the Premier League?

Following on from that, it’s no secret Arsenal have a mean backline. Even in the absence of the injured William Saliba, the champions have led the way defensively again this season, with Ezri Konsa more than ably filling in at centre-back.

Arteta’s men have the joint-most clean sheets in the Premier League in 2026-27 (5), have faced the fewest shots on target (24), conceded the lowest xG (6.2) and allowed the fewest big chances (11). In the calendar year of 2026, they’ve kept a clean sheet in 56% of their league matches (15/27), which is Arsenal’s third-best record in a year, behind 1998 (61%, 23/38) and 1903 (59%, 19/32).

It took a rocket of a free-kick from Szoboszlai to break the deadlock in this fixture last season, but Iraola will be hoping his expensively assembled attack can find a way through on Sunday.

They’re just starting to hit form, too. After much criticism recently, Florian Wirtz has stepped up with three goal involvements in his last four games (1G 2A), and it was his shot against Brighton that forced the own goal to give Liverpool the lead last weekend.

Bradley Barcola did brilliantly to get set up Alexander Isak for the second, and the French winger has five goal involvements in his last four games (3G 2A).

Isak really has hit form, though. The Swede has six goals in his last six Premier League matches, representing two-thirds of all Liverpool’s goals in those games (6/9). He has the best minutes-per-goal ratio of any player to score under Iraola in his career as manager in Europe’s big five leagues (one every 95 minutes).

Getting past Arsenal’s defence and goalkeeper is another matter entirely, though, and Liverpool’s attack will need to be at its best to pierce the heart of the defending champions.

The Midfield Battle

It’s a bit of a cliché to say a big game will be decided in midfield, but that’s because it’s so often true.

Arsenal have a midfield that’s the envy of most, and they’re all in form as well. Declan Rice (91) and Martin Ødegaard (90) have made more line breaking passes ending in the final third than anyone else in the Premier League this season. In fact, no other player has made more than 77 (Granit Xhaka).

Bruno Guimarães has also settled in seamlessly, coming off the bench to score winning goals against both Sunderland and Leeds United. He missed the crucial penalty against Fleetwood on Tuesday, but the former Newcastle man has broadly made a solid start to life in north London.

Liverpool’s midfield have been less convincing of late. It was seen as a source of real issues last season, with both Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch in particular coming in for plenty of criticism.

The former has really turned things around, though, following up a good World Cup showing with Argentina by seemingly rediscovering some of his best form under Iraola. Mac Allister is one of just three players to have featured in all 12 of Liverpool’s games this season.

Gravenberch hasn’t quite managed the same levels, with an inconsistent start to his campaign, but he was notably sensational at Anfield against Man City before being rather harshly sent off.

Szoboszlai is a fitness doubt after suffering a hamstring injury at Brentford, so it seems very likely it’ll be Mac Allister and Gravenberch with Wirtz as a 10 again. Whether they can overcome the in-form pair of Rice and Ødegaard could go a long way to determining the outcome of this one.

Will Set-Pieces Be a Big Factor?

Imagine getting through an article about Arsenal without mentioning set-pieces. It was all anyone could talk about last season as the Gunners scored more goals from corners (19) than any team in a single Premier League season.

That changed when Konsa struck early against Everton, and it is still an area from which Arteta’s men can win games.

While he did a very good job at Bournemouth last season to earn a sixth-place finish, Iraola struggled to stop his team conceding from set-pieces. They allowed 20 goals from corners, free-kicks and throw-ins, the joint most of any Premier League team in 2025-26, along with Liverpool and Crystal Palace.

That said, Iraola’s Liverpool are one of only two teams yet to concede a non-penalty set-piece goal in the Premier League this term, along with Brentford.

Arsenal’s xG from corners this season is 3.4, and so with just that one Konsa goal to show from it, things could start to even out for them before long.

But with Virgil van Dijk, Jérémy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo in defence, Liverpool are well set up to deal with them. Only Leeds’ Tarik Muharemovic (40) has made more headed clearances than Van Dijk (38) in the Premier League this season.

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