Mikel Arteta has issued a rallying cry to his Arsenal squad ahead of the Premier League clash with Liverpool on Sunday.
The Gunners have not won at Anfield in 13 years, with Arteta in the Arsenal team the last time the north Londoners won a league game at Anfield in 2012. Both sides go into the fixture on the back of two wins, although Liverpool have looked shaky in periods in the early stages of the 2025/26 season.
Arsenal trailed Liverpool by 10 points last season in a one-sided race for the title, but speaking on the eve of his side’s trip to Merseyside, Arteta insisted his new-look squad is ready to secure a statement win. “Liverpool are the champions and they are the champions because they deserved to be,” said Arteta. “They were the better team last year, the most consistent team, and the one that found ways to win in many different ways, but we want to be that team this year.
“We need to go to Anfield with that spirit and that conviction, and just be convinced that we can go to Anfield and win. It is a very important game because we want to continue building the momentum that we are in right now. Going to those grounds, those stadiums, against this kind of opposition is what we want, and coming away from those big games, winning in a really convincing way, that’s the objective.”
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Arteta will be without Bukayo Saka for Sunday’s blockbuster clash after the England star sustained a hamstring injury in Arsenal’s 5-0 triumph against Leeds at the Emirates Stadium last weekend. Saka’s absence could clear the way for Eberechi Eze to start his first match since he secured a transfer from Crystal Palace to Arsenal for a fee which could rise to as much as £68million.
Arsenal have spent £250million so far this summer on seven new faces and are set to add an eighth before the window closes with central defender Piero Hincapie poised to arrive on a season-long loan from Bayer Leverkusen. New signing Viktor Gyokeres will also be looking to build on his brace in the victory over Leeds.
Arteta continued: “We have to add players who add value to things that can define football matches and with those two (Eze and Gyokeres), they are going to deliver individual actions, magic moments needed to win games.
“When you are next to Ebere, you are comfortable. He has got a big smile. He picks teams apart. He asks you the right questions and then just let him flow with the ball. The ability he has to pick passes, to drive past people effortlessly and just to understand the timing of everything is very impressive.
“We have to put him in the positions and scenarios where he can deliver those moments which is the reason why we brought him here – to give us something different, and something unexpected.”
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Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
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