EFL Cup: Arsenal vs Liverpool | Jan 14 - 3:45AM

[Mary C]

POTENTIAL LINEUPS:  

Arsenal:  

Leno (G)   

Tomiyasu  

White  

Holding  

Tavares  

Xhaka  

Lokonga  

Saka  

Odegaard  

Smith Rowe  

Nketiah  

   

Liverpool:  

Kelleher (G)   

Alexander-Arnold   

Konate  

Van Dijk  

Tsimikas  

Fabinho  

Henderson  

Milner  

Salah  

Mane  

Jota 

 

Arsenal F.C. pays Liverpool F.C. a visit for the first leg of the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, a.k.a the Carabao Cup. Both clubs will finally clash after the first leg match was rescheduled due to Covid-19 outbreaks for the side of Liverpool. The match will occur this Friday, January 14, 3:45 AM (PHT), at the Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, England. 

 

Liverpool, a.k.a The Reds (12-6-2), recently beat Shrewsbury at 4-1 and qualified to the fourth round of the FA Cup in midweek. The team currently ranks third in the Premier League and was initially set to face Arsenal in their hometown for the Carabao Cup semi-finals. However, the match was postponed due to the surge of Coronavirus cases in their club. Now, Liverpool will instead host Arsenal this Friday. Moreover, reports recently showed that Liverpool had many false positives. For this reason, many clubs complained to the EFL, but the EFL has no plans to investigate the circumstances of the Reds' Covid outbreak since they claim that Liverpool had legitimate reasons for the postponement. 

Meanwhile, Arsenal, a.k.a The Gunners (11-2-7), fell short to Nottingham Forest at 1-0 in the midweek of the FA Cup. The Gunners performed poorly in the game. As a result, Lewis Grabban punished them by grabbing the lead for Forest in the 83rd minute. Both Arsenal and Liverpool suffered from Covid-19 outbreaks, which weakened the team in some ways. Arsenal had a magnificent run throughout this season. However, If Arsenal wants to defeat Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-finals, the team needs to gain momentum since Liverpool has more advantage in terms of stronger players available to play in the upcoming match. These players include Mahomed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Naby Keita. 

 

Both Arsenal and Liverpool are strong teams. Their standings and points in the league are so close that it might be difficult to determine the better team. Thus, the outcome of the match will depend on the strength and strategies of both managers of the team. 

 

Looking at the last 10 games of both clubs, Liverpool is looking better than Arsenal with only 1 loss, while Arsenal lost 4 games. Moreover, looking back at the last clash between the two clubs, Liverpool played exceptionally well and won against Arsenal at 4-0. Although both teams had misfortunes due to Covid-19 and are missing a few players because of AFCON. It seems like Liverpool is still strong enough to defeat Arsenal. However, Arsenal is also one of the league's strongest teams, and we doubt that they will go down without a fight. Nevertheless, we expect a great match from both teams, but we predict that the odds will favor Liverpool on the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals. 

 

Reds vs. Gunners. Friday, 01/14/22, 3:45 AM (PHT), at the Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, England.