In Arsenal’s analysis for this Sunday at Anfield, they have already noticed something different about Liverpool beyond new players. The champions now try the unexpected much more. It is as if the attackers have been given greater creative licence to indulge some of their individual quality. Hence the soaring beauty of Rio Ngumoha’s raucous winning goal against Newcastle United.
That can make this Liverpool team much more unpredictable, especially as stars like Mohamed Salah attempt things others couldn’t imagine. A fitting game for Eberechi Eze to make his debut, perhaps.
The offset is that it also makes Liverpool much more open, to go with Arne Slot’s front-loaded system. It’s not just that Ryan Gravenberch pinned the midfield together on his own against Newcastle. The more freedom you give players, the less proscribed any formation is going to be. So, if someone like Florian Wirtz loses the ball when trying something riskier, there’s instantly much more space in behind.
Slot has been willing to take such risks because Liverpool have the quality to punish you out of nowhere. He’s been vindicated by two results so far, despite the questions about performance. It’s almost as if the Liverpool manager is very literally trying to push the boundaries of last season; to move the lines of his formation; to try new things in order to go to new levels.
Against that, Mikel Arteta has sought to harden his team’s boundaries; to fill in the remaining gaps. He surveyed last season and knows that Arsenal’s top level is good enough, and “probably better than Liverpool’s”, in the words of some insiders. The problem was depth and alternatives, two issues very much tackled by this summer’s business.
Arsenal now have multiple possible configurations for all areas of the pitch – to the point that Bukayo Saka’s injury isn’t the disaster it might have been – but it is still all within Arteta’s design. There isn’t the same scope for individual imagination. So, although Arteta’s ideal might be that opposition managers find it impossible to predict his line-ups, he knows exactly what he wants from them.
Sunday’s potential title clash might consequently represent more control against more release; order against unpredictability. The difference could also decide the season.
It has already defined the entire summer.
Some Arsenal sources have argued that, rather than signing six different players, they should have just gone bigger with the budget by securing Martin Zubimendi, Eze… and Alexander Isak. The rationale is they should have only signed game-changers, to elevate the squad, rather than so many alternative options, that mostly deepen it.
Liverpool have almost taken exactly that approach. Sure, they have still signed four players – and want to make it six with a new forward and Marc Guehi as a defender – but all are starters. Since even the full-backs play in a different way to Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, both Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong can also be considered “game-changers”.
Wirtz’s style is obviously what people really mean when they use that description, and Isak would be a level beyond. Liverpool have generally gone for players that change the boundaries.
These differences have even manifested themselves in the teams’ goal records so far. Liverpool have scored seven but conceded four. Arsenal have scored six but conceded none.
Despite these contrasts, there is still common ground, that is just as relevant to the title race.
All of this comes in a Pep Guardiola-shaped landscape. Both of these managers have enthused about how they’re disciples of that tactical school, and everything they do is informed by those principles. They implement the same positional game.
It merely shows how influential Guardiola’s football has become, and how far it’s spread, that two diverging interpretations can still rightly cast themselves as from the same ideology.
This is perhaps a lesson that Ruben Amorim should heed, as he so dogmatically adheres to his own ideas. More adaptation is possible within the same broad ideology.
Slot duly seems to be following the Andoni Iraola-influenced line in now allowing greater individual freedom.
Guardiola’s own interpretation can’t yet be dismissed so readily, either. Manchester City may look a different force when his new group internalise his approach.
And yet the very fact that Liverpool and Arsenal were top two last season, and are already two of just three teams with 100 per cent records this season, further suggests this might be the shape of things to come.
If so, it would be the first proper title rivalry not to feature City since 2015-16, maybe even 2010-11.
Last season never really got going, after all. Liverpool were too far ahead. It just sowed some seeds.
A rivalry has grown between fans, certainly online. That has been stoked by some of Arteta’s statements and how, yes, some at Arsenal think they are the better team. Liverpool did not beat them last season. Some insiders even express frustration that Saka’s injury means this will be the third successive meeting where Liverpool get to face an Arteta side without senior players.
Against that, Liverpool can point to their own issues, including in midfield now, but they don’t need to. They can simply point to the Premier League trophy.
They’ve gone there and done it, in a way Arsenal have yet to prove they can.
Any animosity from such futile debates, mind, has not yet extended to the pitch, the sidelines or even the boardrooms.
There is so far respect between the coaching teams, and that extends from the executive boxes. There, FSG and the Kroenkes have found common cause in discussing football’s direction.
Other stakeholders would argue that in itself is a sign of American-led machinations about the game’s future. The two clubs did drive a Super League, after all.
It’s not like there’s been much rancour from history, either, despite this rivalry having a vintage feel due to the clubs’ vaunted status in English football.
Liverpool and Arsenal might have been involved in the most famous title race of all, in 1988-89, but that was one of few. The primary emotions that surrounded it were also solemnity and respect, given Hillsborough.
Outside Michael Thomas’s exhilarating moment, there have only been four other seasons where Liverpool and Arsenal finished as the top two. Of those, probably only 1972-73 was a proper title race.
So, if this is to develop into a race, the main difference might really be the tactical approaches. Arsenal can’t even point to last year’s difference of £80m in wages, given what they’ve spent since.
This all explains why Sunday’s match feels unusually significant for a fixture so early in the season, especially given all of the unknowns.
One unknown is whether Arsenal can finally step up. Another is what Liverpool’s attack will try in any given moment.
That will pose a new test to Arsenal’s hardline defence, who will be much more robust than either Bournemouth or Newcastle.
A more restrained counter-attacking game might make sense for Arteta, but Slot surely won’t play a team as open as on Monday. Will his midfield be reshaped? Is that where the need for Eze without Saka will be even greater?
As the rivals both seek to make a title statement, will Liverpool actually go for that bit more control, as Arsenal allow a greater release?
The answer could decide the game, and maybe the season.
Liverpool vs Arsenal kicks off at 4,30pm on Sunday 31 August. TV coverage starts at 4pm on Sky Sports
Theo Walcott highlights trait Arsenal starlet Max Dowman has in common with Lionel Messi
Eberechi Eze will create ‘magic moments’ and take Arsenal to next level – Arteta
Why Arsenal’s future looks brighter than ever after demolishing Leeds
Man City boss Pep Guardiola still to determine who his number one goalkeeper is
Arsenal injury update: When Saka, Odegaard, Havertz and more are set to return
Mikel Arteta reveals Bukayo Saka will only be sidelined for a ‘couple of weeks’
