Preview: Arsenal v Liverpool

It promises to be a super Sunday at Emirates Stadium as we face Liverpool for a game that could be pivotal in the Premier League title race.

Our 2-1 win away to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night saw us close the gap to two points to Jurgen Klopp's side, before they went five points clear again with a 4-1 win at home to Chelsea.

A win on Sunday would once again take us to within two points of the league leaders and return to second place ahead of Manchester City's match away to Brentford on Monday night.

Klopp's last hurrah

For Liverpool, there would be no better way to celebrate Jurgen Klopp's final season at the club than with a second Premier League title under the German boss. They're still fighting on four fronts in their quest for silverware this season.

The Reds have crucially made themselves hard to beat, losing just once in the division this season, but they were also unable to beat us in December's meeting at Anfield, when goals from Gabriel and Mohamed Salah contributed to a 1-1 draw on Merseyside.

They've had a spring in their step since then though thanks to wins against Burnley, Newcastle United and AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League, and reached the final of the Carabao Cup with a 3-2 win on aggregate over Fulham in the semi-finals.

What the managers say

Arteta: "What we need to do is play the way we played in the last two games against them, and be more efficient in the areas that are going to decide the game.

“[I’m] very excited, it’s always great to prepare a game against Liverpool; how good they are, they dominate every aspect of the game. We play at home, and what I sense is a real sense of positivity and enthusiasm around the place.”

Read every word of Mikel's pre-match press conference here.

Klopp: "We just focus on the game, on the things we have to do, improve from the games we played against them and learn from the games we played against them because they’re really good, and try to win.

“It’s more difficult at Arsenal but we are in a good moment and we should use that as well.”

Team news

Thomas Partey will be unavailable following a setback to his recovery from a muscle injury. It remains to be seen how close to a return Fabio Vieira and Jurrien Timber are from their fitness and knee issues respectively, while Mohamed Elneny has just recently returned from the African Cup of Nations.

Takehiro Tomiyasu remains unavailable having just finished international duty with Japan in the Asian Cup on Saturday.

Liverpool will assess the fitness of Darwin Nunez, who sustained a foot injury against Chelsea on Wednesday.

Thiago has returned to full training following a hip issue but Klopp will continue to be without Mohamed Salah (hamstring), Joel Matip (knee), Kostas Tsimikas (shoulder), Stefan Bajcetic (calf) and Ben Doak (knee).

Like Tomiyasu, Endo has been away with Japan at the Asian Cup.

Facts and stats

Gabriel Martinelli has more goal contributions against Liverpool in all competitions than he has against any other opponent for us (four goals, two assists). The Brazilian netted the opener after just 58 seconds in this exact fixture last season, also assisting Bukayo Saka’s goal to give the Gunners a 2-1 lead heading into half time.

We won this exact fixture 3-2 last season, last beating Liverpool at home in consecutive Premier League campaigns in 2013/14 and 2014/15.

This will be the 200th league meeting between us and Liverpool, the fifth fixture to have been played as many times in English football history. Liverpool have won 79 to our 66 so far (54 draws).

We have taken five points from our last three Premier League games against Liverpool (W1 D2), as many as we had in our previous 12 (W1 D2 L9). We're looking to remain unbeaten in four league games against the Reds for the first time since between December 2014 and January 2016 (W1 D3).

We have opened the scoring in our last three Premier League games against Liverpool, doing so in the opening 10 minutes of the match each time. We last scored first in four straight league meetings with the Reds between August 1967 and November 1970 (a run of six).

Match officials

Anthony Taylor has been appointed to take charge of Sunday's game, having officiated 28 matches in all competitions, during which he has handed out 129 yellow cards and four reds.

He has only been the referee for one of our games so far this season - our 3-1 win at home to Manchester United in early September.

Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Craig Pawson
VAR: David Coote
Assistant VAR: Tim Wood

Last season at the Emirates

We ended a run of five games in all competitions without a win against Liverpool in last season's Premier League fixture at Emirates Stadium.

Gabriel Martinelli gave us the lead instantly in the first minute of the game, but Darwin Nunez pulled one back just beyond the half-hour mark.

Bukayo Saka put us ahead again with the interval approaching, before Roberto Firmino got Liverpool’s second equaliser.

Saka was the hero though with 14 minutes to go when he converted from the penalty spot to make it 3-2 to the good.

Breakdown Live

Nick Bright and Adrian Clarke are pitchside with Arsenal County Armagh for Sunday's game and, to mark Green Football Weekend, Mathieu Flamini joins Nicole Holliday.

Nick and Adrian welcome Martin Keown and Theo Walcott to the My Arsenal Rewards box while Nicole will be out and about asking supporters our Question of the Day.

DJ Target and Alexis Guerreros will be in the studio too before we hand over to Dan Roebuck and Nigel Winterburn for live commentary from Emirates Stadium.

You can also find out which broadcaster is showing the action live wherever you are in the world.