Happy Saturday, kids. How are we all feeling? I had a Turkish last night; they gave us an extra meal by mistake, so I’ll not say I’m in the finest of forms. A couple of bottles of Bordeaux didn’t quite help the situation either.

Anyway, we must make do with what we’ve got, and what we’ve got today is team news, for which both managers have spoken and we have a little more insight on where the teams are. Not a lot, but a little, and we know that Arteta would not be drawn on whether Noni is actually fit for tomorrow. Can you imagine if he’s not?? Who the heck are we going to play right wing? There’s no Saka, Dowman’s red card has been upheld (more on that in a tick), Tzolis has only just returned to training, and Eze is surely going to start on the left. So who the heck takes that spot if Noni isn’t fit?

It’s Merino, isn’t it? Man is a Swiss Army knife, so we might as well see if he can be wheeled out in another position he immediately excels at.

I think the reality is that Noni will be fine. Arteta was bigging him up yesterday in his press conference, so I suspect he’ll be fit and able to play tomorrow, and we’ll need him to continue his decent run of form too. He scored when he came on against Forest for our winner; he was good against Everton, so I’m hoping that whilst our strikers are out of form, that’s one guy who is very much in it.

Let’s talk about the Dowman stuff then, shall we? I thought what Arteta said was really good. He’s a kid, we know we have to protect him, Arteta spoke about how they were talking before about the reaction he gave whilst on England duty, and how that was what fueled his response the other night. But he also talked about how Max needs to learn, about how we need to treat him with respect, but that he isn’t in Disneyland here; this is elite football and the best league in the entire world. What Max is doing is amazing, and Arteta said it, but we also need to treat him like one of the first team, because he is, and he has fellow professionals around him that need to see that he only gets a certain level of special treatment.

I really like that. We need to protect him, nurture him, let him develop, but we also need to hold him to the high-foggin standards that the rest of the first team have.

The other team news is that they don’t know on whether Saka will be back before the next international break, and that there is another scan that is needed. I suspect that’s optimistic, because it’s 12th November when England play Croatia and then Spain three days later. Arsenal played Bayern on 21st October, we were told unofficially that it’s between six-to-eight weeks. the 12th October, on more realistically the 16th October when the matches have finished, puts him at 26 days and just under four weeks out. I suspect we’re talking about the Christmas period for Saka’s return. At best.

He of course also said positive things about Liverpool challenging for the title, about facing his old pal Andoni Iraola, as well as the problems we’ve had at Anfield, but for me there wasn’t really too much there to sink your teeth into, or analyse, so I think I’ll gloss over those comments in made in response to those questions. But I do think we need to acknowledge that Liverpool will be up there this season. Iraloa knows what he’s doing, he’s starting to get a tune out of his players, and the 2-0 win over Brighton last weekend was a positive step for them after a stuttering start to their home form. They should probably be favourites this weekend for this one, given that result and how Isak always seems to score against us, so I do think we’re up for a tough afternoon. He’s in form, is second in the league for goals behind Haaland, and the fact he’s waaaaay down the list for total shots he takes (15 players have all taken more shots in the league than Isak on 20 shots – Haaland has had 10 more already) shows that he is a prolific guy who will take any chance he’s given.

As for the rest of the Liverpool team, the team news from Iraola was that Munoz and Szoboszlai are at the chance’ stage, which I think means they make the squad. It sounds like a place on the bench for them, but you never know, because we’ve had experience of these managers ourselves in Arteta and his Havertz stuff. We all thought Havertz was out for ages after the international break, then ‘poof’, he appears on the starting XI team sheet for Leeds at home. So I’m not going to be making any expectations. And besides, they have enough quality in attack to hurt us without him, as Gakpo appears to be playing well, I’ve mentioned Isak already, plus you have Barcola starting to settle in. This is going to be a streth for our back line.

The weird thing is, the attacking numbers don’t suggest it as much. Liverpool are currently ninth in the table for goals scored. They are eighth for xG, so the quality of chances they’ve been getting have not been amazing. That might also be explained by the fact they’re fourth in terms of volumes of shots taken; so it tells me they’re having pops from distance and maybe have found it difficult to get in behind teams so far this season. Their shot conversion puts them 13th in the Premier League; in other words, they are having lots of shots, probably from distance, but they aren’t converting them, which you’d expect if a side is being a little more speculative.

From a pressing and running perspective – something synonymous with Iraola teams – they’ve got the fourth-highest starting distance in the Premier League in average; so they are playing with a higher line to squeeze their opponents. They’re also mid table when it comes to 10+ passes being strung together; usually that means a team that just wants to go back to front quickly and directly. So it feels like we’re going to see a Liverpool team who wants to play a highly pressing line, and get to goal as quick as possible as soon as they win the ball. They’re top of the table on direct attacks, just behind us, so that backs it up.

So we’re starting to get a bit of a picture of what’s in store for us, but I’ll save any more thoughts on what we need to do until the match preview tomorrow. So for now, have a good one, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Ciao.