Arsenal v Liverpool Betting Tips
The Arsenal odds of 1.61 might be warm order for this Thursday night Premier League clash against Liverpool. After all, we're talking about a team who have registered nine wins from their ten games at the Emirates this term. Only Manchester City have stopped them from triumphing, while Mikel Arteta's side have also claimed six wins from their ten matches on the road.
The only defeats suffered this term have come at Anfield and Villa Park. In both clashes, they were undone by late goals, although they've been largely foot perfect aside from this. The London team run a tight defensive ship for the most part, with Gabriel recently returning from injury and restoring that partnership with William Saliba that has served them so well.
The goals are also flowing for the title favourites who are six points ahead of Aston Villa and Manchester City right now. They average 2.6 goals at the Emirates and have won five consecutive top-flight encounters since that 2-1 defeat at Villa Park on 6 December. Arteta will have been delighted with the winning machine that the side has become and it's hard to bet against them right now.
What to make of Liverpool? The Reds cruised to a title success last season without much fuss. Since then, it's been tougher going. A few early victories papered over the cracks before the wheels started to fall off. The recent 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage laid bare their defensive shortcomings, with Arne Slot's side having won just four of their ten matches on the road this term.
The Merseyside outfit have also suffered four defeats and it's hard to see how they can engineer a win here. Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak are notable absentees and it might be that Hugo Ekitike is also unavailable due to a hamstring injury. It makes it difficult to present a compelling case for backing them in this difficult assignment.
Goals Under/Over
There's a reasonably strong chance of Over 2.5 Goals being scored in this encounter between two teams who like to play attacking football. The odds suggest a 60% chance of three or more being notched, although there's the small matter of a very tight Arsenal defence, especially at the Emirates Stadium.
On average, Arsenal concede 0.5 goals per home game and they've been boosted by the return of Gabriel. The Brazilian partners William Saliba and it's generally to very good effect. On the flip side, some of the recent matches involving the Gunners have been high-scoring affairs. Take the 4-1 win over Aston Villa for example and that came before a 3-2 win at Bournemouth.
We know Liverpool are unlikely to park the bus and the 2-2 draw at Fulham saw Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong continue their impressive form. However, the visitors can hardly be trusted from a defensive point-of-view and they have conceded more goals on the road (18) than they have scored.
BTTS
There's not much between the odds for BTTS Yes and BTTS No. The former is trading marginally shorter at 1.75 right now, with Arsenal virtually certain to find the net. After all, the Gunners have scored in every home match this season and they've only failed to notch once away from home which actually came from an unambitious approach at Anfield.
It's surely not the case that the London outfit will draw a blank here. They have lots of goals in the team and nine have been scored in the past three games. However, the winning scorelines have been 2-1, 4-1 and 3-2, suggesting that they can't be trusted hugely to keep a clean sheet right now.
Three of the past four Liverpool matches have resulted in both teams scoring. There was a 2-1 victory at Tottenham which involved a shaky finish against opponents reduced to nine men by the final whistle. Then came a flimsy 2-1 victory over Wolves before a goalless draw against Leeds and that 2-2 draw at Fulham.
We're not convinced Liverpool will create a lot of chances against such strong opposition and would be leaning towards an Arsenal win and BTTS No at the prices.
First Goalscorer
We can't be too confident that Viktor Gyokeres will score against Liverpool. The Swede is certainly part of a successful Arsenal side right now but the forward isn't proving to be prolific in the current set-up. The former Sporting Lisbon player has just seven goals to his name this term although it's likely that he will on penalty duties based on the fact that he despatched a spot kick at Everton.
Declan Rice was the man in the right place at the Vitality Stadium as the England man was able to secure a brace, with the midfielder adept at being free in the penalty area as his team attacks. We also think Bukayo Saka is always one for the shortlist considering that the winger was rested at Bournemouth and will surely pose a threat from the wide right position.
Then we have the man mountain Gabriel, with the Brazilian having now scored in consecutive games and he's such a powerful threat from set pieces. He has four for the season and we also think Jurrien Timber offers a scoring alternative considering the Dutchman's propensity for getting in the right positions.
Liverpool's scoring options are altogether more limited although Cody Gakpo is probably the most reliable source of goals from the players definitely available. It may be that Dominik Szoboszlai is also able to ghost into some promising positions and add a scoring touch.