FOR the last two seasons Liverpool have taken great delight in bringing the Gunners back down to earth, winning out convincingly on all four occasions, each time putting an end to an encouraging run of results for Mikel Arteta’s side.

On all four occasions Arsenal have gone into the game in fine fettle, either starting their season well or having corrected a slide that veered close to crisis. By the final whistle they’ve been outclassed and mercilessly reminded of their limitations.

Will history repeat itself at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon? It might, but it seems unlikely and that’s because this time feels different.

It feels different because there is genuine substance to Arsenal right now, a substance that has propagated belief which in turn has produced performances such as we saw in the North London Derby last week. In conceding a cheap equalizer to Spurs, after dominating the first half, heads might previously have dropped but that was then, and this is now. After the break, Arsenal simply reset and went again, propelled forward by the scheming guile of Martin Odegaard and – it feels so odd to be writing this – the best box-to-box midfielder in the Premier League at present, Granit Xhaka.

It was not the beating of Spurs that most impressed. It was that Arsenal controlled every aspect of the contest, including their own self-doubt.

Subsequently, this is their best start to a campaign since 2008.

The Gunners have yet to concede inside half an hour while Liverpool have gone behind in five of their last seven league outings. Back the hosts to be ahead at the break this weekend at 2/1.

As for Liverpool, they are in no position this time out to dispense any reality-checks, beset as they are by all manner of problems. With just two wins on the board seven games in, this is their worst start to a campaign under Jurgen Klopp and their plight looks even worse should we go back a touch further. In Brendan Rodgers’ farewell third-of-a-season in 2015/16, Liverpool had picked up one more point at this juncture. The Northern Irishman was sacked one game later.

Of course, nobody is suggesting his successful successor’s job is on the line, though if we dig deep enough on social media there will absolutely be a Red or two insisting his time is up. Yet, it does highlight all-too-starkly just how stuttering and unsure Liverpool have been this term. How uncharacteristically normal.

Virgil Van Dijk has lost his superpowers while up front chances are being wasted. Liverpool are mid-table in the chance conversion stakes and have five fewer shots on target this term to the Gunners.

As for their pressing – a hallmark of their remarkable rise in recent years – that appears to be reasonably okay in the stats but it hopelessly fails the eye-test. Against Brighton at the weekend, spaces were routinely afforded that raised eyebrows and no doubt too, Klopp’s blood pressure. At times strolling was evident. Actual strolling.

For all their woes, the Reds have won 55 corners this season, averaging 7.8 per game. Over 6.5 for the visitors offers up a generous 11/5.

A lack of creativity in central areas and Klopp’s loyalty to players regardless of form are two other factors but more pertinently it’s not what Liverpool are doing badly, but what they’re missing. Last season and beyond, the marauding runs of their full-backs were a fundamental element of their success, with Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold both racking up double figures for assists. In 2022/23 so far, they have only one assist from a combined 982 minutes of league football.

It should also be noted that this past month or two has bluntly demonstrated just how important Sadio Mane was to Klopp’s grand design.

On the subject of Trent, exposing his defensive weaknesses feels like easy pickings at this point, bordering on scapegoating, but it’s certainly fair to say the 23-year-old is the best and worst of Liverpool. When they’re on it, he is an enormous asset but when they’re struggling, he’s a luxury and it matters that he’s up against Gabriel Martinelli on Sunday, a player who has been uniformly brilliant from the season’s get-go.

Martinelli is 14/5 to score anytime this Sunday.

That’s enough though with the negativity, because probably starting in their ranks in this defining match is the rejuvenated Roberto Firmino and he simply loves playing against Arsenal, previously scoring nine in 16. It’s a record bettered by Diogo Jota, who will also surely feature. In this fixture, for Liverpool, the Portuguese winger has converted seven in seven.

Switching sides however, we also find a player who will be relishing the opponent as much as the occasion. Not only has Gabriel Jesus scored five and assisted three times in a blistering opening to his Arsenal career but he has posted exactly the same figures previously against the Reds. It’s the Brazilian’s best return versus any of the ‘top six’ and it should additionally be noted that he has scored nine of his last 13 goals on home soil, should we include his latter days at Manchester City.

Widening our view, this is a marquee match-up that promises goals, with a ridiculous spell between 2016 and 2020 producing an avalanche of 5.2 per game. Goalless encounters meanwhile are largely reserved for the League Cup.

And naturally, Arsenal should be fancied here, simply by virtue of their tremendous form of late. The Gunners have won seven consecutive home games in the Premier League, their longest run under Arteta.

A 3-way handicap starting at 1-0 for Arsenal is available at 19/5.