Liverpool v Arsenal – Betting Preview
An increasingly divisive Arsenal side travel to Anfield to take on Premier League leaders Liverpool on Wednesday night.
Sportingly Better takes a look at the best betting angles ahead of a potentially explosive televised encounter between the two sides.
English Football Tips
Liverpool (2.00) v Arsenal (3.60); Draw (3.60)
There won’t be many occasions where you’ll be able to back the Premiership leaders at home for even money this season, but Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal provides just that.
The home odds are undoubtedly appealing given Liverpool’s form and are a great way to take advantage of the current welcome bonuses on offer from online sports bookmakers and betting sites such as Ted Bingo.
The Carabao Cup game at Anfield will give Jurgen Klopp the opportunity to ring the changes and change he will, with 20-year old goalkeeper Caoimhin Kheller set to start between the sticks and 16-year old striker Harvey Elliot likely to at least make the bench.
Defensive titan Virgil Van Dyk may not be risked here, so error-prone centre back Dejan Lovren could be in-line for consecutive starts alongside young defender Joe Gomez.
That untested centre back partnership is likely to be a big positive on the BTTS market, with that outcome priced at odds of 1.50 in this match.
Klopp’s side may well be brimming with confidence, but his starting eleven on Wednesday night may in part resemble closer to the team that faced MK Dons in the last round, with Rhian Brewster, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all likely to feature.
In terms of list of priorities, this certainly isn’t one this season for Klopp and Liverpool.
Value on the visitors?
Much has been made of Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka’s reaction to his own fans this weekend and whether there is a way back for the Swiss international at the club remains to be seen.
An away match would be a potentially more forthcoming setting to return to, but given the player has yet to publicly apologise, it’s difficult seeing Xhaka playing any part in this match.
That shadow will not help under-pressure manager Unai Emery, who himself is struggling with the demands and expectations of Gooners fans.
Emery can ill-afford to move to far away from his strongest line-up, but the likes of Emile Smith-Rowe, Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka could at least feature.
Arsenal have already lost 3-1 at Anfield this season and if it was not for Liverpool rotating their ranks, than a similar defeat would have surely been expected for the north London side.
Six of the last seven meetings at Anfield have seen over 3.5 goals (2.20) and four of the last seven encounters have gone over 5.5 goals (7.00), so it would be of little surprise to see a similar goal-laden encounter this time around.
Verdict
Liverpool have enjoyed playing Arsenal recently, scoring at least three goals in each of their last five matches at Anfield and given the juxtaposing priorities from both clubs, goals may be the best market to play for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup game.
Recommended Football Tips
Back over 1.5 first half goals @2.20
Back Arsenal goal before 51 minutes @1.83
Author Credit: Jonathan Day
Image Credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Unai_Emery_-_Sevilla.jpg