Arsenal vs Liverpool Preview, Team News, Likely Line-ups & Predictions

Arsenal welcome fellow top-four hopefuls Liverpool to the Emirates on Wednesday night with both sides looking to close the gap on fourth-placed Tottenham.

The Gunners head into the game off the back of Saturday’s hard fought 3-2 win away at Brighton in the FA Cup, while they put 5 past West Ham in their last Premier League outing, so Arsene Wenger’s men should be full of confidence tonight.

The visitors also scored 5 in their last league game with a resounding win over Norwich but they followed that up with a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Oldham in the FA Cup on Sunday so Brendan Rodgers will be looking for a response from this players at the Emirates.

Arsenal currently sit in sixth place in the league table – four points off fourth place Tottenham – while Liverpool are a further three points off the pace, so both sides will want a win tonight to maintain their hopes of securing a top-four finish at the end of the season.

Team News

Arsene Wenger welcomes back captain Thomas Vermaelen after he missed the weekends action with a minor ankle knock. The Belgian is expected to come in for Per Mertesacker with Wenger likely to opt for the mobility of Laurent Koscielny at the back.

Bacary Sagna, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla are all also expected to return to the starting eleven after being rested against Brighton. However, Mikel Arteta and Francis Coquelin remain on the sidelines leaving Abou Diaby and Aaron Ramsey to contend for a place alongside Wilshere in midfield.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has been boosted by the return of Pepe Reina, Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson for the match.

Enrique has been out of action for over a month with a hamstring tear and Rodgers may elect to keep him on the bench and stick with Andre Wisdom and Glen Johnson in the full back positions.

Captain Steven Gerrard will return after being used as a substitute on Sunday while Jordan Henderson may be given the nod ahead of Joe Allen in midfield.

Likely Line-ups

Betting preview and predictions

On paper Arsenal look to be favourites for this one with the Londoners only losing one of the previous eleven games against Liverpool. Brendan Rodgers side have also struggled away from home this season, winning only three times so far.

To help us try and come up with a predicted score-line we headed over to Betegy.com and their software has crunched the numbers and they support the view that there will be a home win tonight as they predict there is a 38% of an Arsenal win, 34% of a draw with a Liverpool win at just 28%:

An Arsenal win is currently 7/5 with William Hill but if betting on the exact score is more your thing, Betegy data predicts there is a 33% chance the Gunners will win 2-1 which is currently an 8/1 shot with William Hill.

Why not head over to Betegy and see what all the fuss is about? It’s free to join and you’ll receive free and accurate predictions for games throughout Europe every week. They have an excellent success rate so far so why not give it a try?

What would your line up be and what’s your score prediction for the game? Get involved in the comments section below.