Mikel Arteta has plenty of selection headaches ahead of Arsenal vs Liverpool. The Spaniard will give it to the last second to make his decision, but there is so much still up in the air that he has been having sleepless nights.
“Normally I prefer to go to bed with the line up in my head so I can sleep like a baby,” he said in his pre-match press conference. “But sometimes it can not be as you have to wait for the next day. Sometimes two days before. Or just three days before you already have the idea ‘against this team this is what I am going to do’ but when you have uncertainty with injuries that is tricky.”
Martin Odegaard, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney are definitely out, while William Saliba is missing for the first time since May 2023 due to suspension. Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are contenders to replace him, but both face late fitness tests, while Bukayo Saka is also a doubt.
A loss could see Arsenal fall to seven points behind Liverpool. Even at this early stage, such a gap in the title race feels huge.
With that in mind, it’s crucial that Arteta gets his team selection spot on. Here’s how football.london are expecting the Spaniard to set his side up.
