Happy Friday, boys and girls. Do you ever have those weeks where it feels like it’s absolutely flown by? That’s me this week. Which is a good thing that the Fleetwood game happened earlier in the week, because I’ve been able to mitigate the ‘banter’ damage from friends and family, whilst also moving on myself from it pretty swiftly.

I hope that’s the same for the players, for which we’ll find out more today from the manager, and I suspect he’ll also talk about the Dowman card. The fact the club appealed it probably shows that whilst Arteta was pretty surly-looking when he exchanged words with Max on the night, he will have softened his view significantly since then. I wonder if he’ll be asked – or if he volunteers – to talk about it and say he thought it was something else. To be fair to Arteta, when I first saw it, I thought “he’s off – kicking out at a player on the ground”, but then you watch it again, and it’s hardly a kick, plus the challenge that goes in on him and earns nothing for the player is frankly ludicrous.

But that’s the game, unfortunately, and until the authorities get off their arses and do something, we’re doomed to continue to live in a world where spitting at somebody carries the same offence as breaking somebody’s leg and potentially endangering the rest of their career.

Max won’t be available for Liverpool, Hull or Newcastle, and given that we know that Saka is going to be out for a while, he is a definite option that would have got minutes, had he been available. Not a lot we can do about it now though, so we look to Liverpool without him, which is a daunting enough task in itself.

That’s because SUUUUUUCK up there. Our last win was on 2nd September 2012, and it was NEW SIGNINGS Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla who scored both goals in that very weird purple and black kick. Since then we’ve suffered eight losses and eight draws, so whilst chasing that win has been elusive, there have been plenty of times in which we’ve at least picked up a point. Which is why I find myself once again pessimistic about this one on Sunday, as I always do. But on the other side of the fence, how are they feeling?

I had a little look, and this is interesting, because unlike some of the teams down there or in mid-table, the talk is all about how they are playing and how they recognise this will be a tough game. When you visit a Sunderland, Forest, Newcastle or Villa forum, it’s all subjective crap like “I hate Arteta” or “Those cocky Cockneys need to get it” and other such nonsense. But the forum pages I’ve looked at are Liverpool fans focused on the best attacking lineup, how to counter our physicality, with a few smatterings of “I’d probably take a draw at this stage in the season”.

Liverpool has always represented a tough place to go, in my whole football-supporting life, and it will prove again to be so on Sunday.

As for the pundits, well, we’ve got Chris Sutton predicting a 1-0 to The Arsenal. But he admits it will be tight. These games always are. Lewis Jones hits us with a 1-1, citing the fact that Liverpool love a tactical foul to slow the game down. We’ve seen enough Arsenal games to know that we don’t need any excuse to slow the game down to try to make it a tactical chess battle, so I can kind of see where he’s coming from here. Sports Mole say the most likely outcome is an Arsenal 2-1, giving us a 47% chance probability of it, but I don’t buy those odds. Give it to me at The Emirates, and I’m probably nodding along in agreement, but not at Anfield, and not with our history there. Squawka has gone with a tight 1-0 win for us, but again, the reasoning I’m just not sure about. They cite the fact that there is no Ekitike, Frimpong, or Szoboszlai, but I suspect he’ll be on the bench and able to get maybe 20 minutes at least to impact the game, and we saw what he did from a free kick late last season. So I’m not as bullish.

I guess if I’m going to make the case based on some numbers (might do a bit more on that tomorrow as well), it is that Liverpool have only won one of their four home games this season, having lost one to City and drawn to Forest and Fulham. So they haven’t been spectacular on their own patch. But you just look at how up for it they were against City, and were the better team until the farcical second yellow for Gravenberch, and you can see that against the big teams who come at them, they can cut you open with the talent they have. We also know that Isak loves a goal against us and always plays well, so it’s going to be tough to contain him, Barcola, and Gakpo.

But if we want all three points, we must contain them, and you kind of feel like we’re going to have to keep a clean sheet to stand any chance of winning it. With our slightly misfiring front line, it doesn’t feel like we’re the kind of side that’s winning it 2-1 or 3-2, so my early prediction is that this game is won by a single goal. Which way that is, I don’t know.

We’ll at least know more on what the managers thinhk – kind of – by the end of today. So we will be able to have a look at that tomorrow, to which I’ll pen some thoughts on that and maybe look at some of the stats for Liverpool this season,to see what type of side they are under Iraola.

Other than that, I’ll catch you all tomorrow, and hope you have a great FRiday.