Newly Inconsistent Liverpool Prepare to Face Consistently Inconsistent Arsenal

Late season football, once the table positions begin to look sorted, always throws up some odd results. With how far out in front Liverpool are, 21 points clear with the league won, a few head-scratchers should perhaps be expected.

A bizarrely open match against Manchester City. Struggling to get past Aston Villa and Brighton. Putting in their best performance since Crystal Palace and dropping points to Burnley.

It’s been hard to know quite what to expect.

“The last seven days now were really incredible, three games in pretty much a week is unbelievable in that moment,” said manager Jürgen Klopp, who thinks the congested fixture list following a three-month break due to coronavirus isn’t helping.

“But it is how it is and now we have one day more and then hopefully we can completely recover. We will and then we go again against Arsenal, which will be an interesting one.”

Next opponents Arsenal have been wildly inconsistent following the restart, though in their case that’s not a major change from earlier in the season. That they find themselves in ninth with a finish anywhere from seventh to 11th plausible seems a fair reflection of their season to date.

The question, though, is which Arsenal side shows up on Wednesday—the one that played against City looking like they expected to be hammered and duly were, or the one that beat Wolves and at least showed up against local rivals Tottenham.

And then the question will be which Liverpool side shows up to face them.