Liverpool vs Arsenal LIVE: Premier League latest score and goal updates – UK Times

Pantomime boos as Arsenal came onto the Anfield pitch first.

“Championees, championees” is the cry as Virgil van Dijk leads out Liverpool.

The Arsenal players applaud as they form the guard of honour, which must hurt after falling just short in the last two seasons.

Nottingham Forest 2-2 Leicester

Manchester United 0-2 West Ham

Tottenham 0-2 Crystal Palace

A blow for Nottingham Forest as Leicester equalise late on. More misery for Manchester United and Tottenham in the Premier League, as they drop to 16th and 17th ahead of the Europa League final.

Those results mean there’s less pressure on Arsenal’s necks.

For much of the season, this looked a potential title decider, or a last chance for Arsenal to halt Liverpool.

Instead, Arsenal face a battle to hold on to second place. A win today would at least guarantee Champions League football next season for the team Mikel Arteta has called the best in this season’s Champions League. But Arsenal are without the injured Declan Rice.

Liverpool, after resting plenty of players last week against Chelsea, are almost at full strength, though Alexis Mac Allister and Trent Alexander-Arnold begin on the bench.

Arsenal’s last Premier League defeat to a traditional “big six” rival – ie, Liverpool, Man City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham – was at the Etihad in April 2023.

Arsenal have drawn their last three visits to Anfield in the Premier League and last lost against Liverpool away from home in November 2021 (4-0).

It really does feel a big day for Conor Bradley – but could a tactical rethink be required to compensate for the loss of the creativity that Trent Alexander-Arnold provides? Richard Jolly analyses the possibilities.

Suddenly, Arsenal might just be looking over their shoulders rather than up ahead of them at Liverpool. Newcastle’s crucial win over Chelsea earlier has moved Eddie Howe’s side to within a point of the presumed runners-up – and they travel to the Emirates Stadium next week…

It’s no doubt been a difficult week for Mikel Arteta, the positive direction of his project still obvious but another season without a major trophy coming and going. He insisted on Friday that the breakthrough will come for Arsenal.

“I have so much to achieve and that is what drives me every day,” Arteta said. “The people and the staff and the players drive me every single day.

“If there is somebody that has raised the standard and the expectation the highest, it has been me. Because I have been demanding and expecting much more, and after that much more, and after that much more.

“For me it is the only way to do it, for everybody to have really high standards and demands.

“We are very, very close to achieving it. I understand the disappointment and the criticism. It is all part of it.

“At the end there is one winner and the rest of them aren’t going to win, so they need to reinvent themselves and do better and that is part of the cycle.”

There are two changes for Arsenal from the defeat at Paris Saint-Germain. Declan Rice misses out through injury so Mikel Merino drops into midfield and Leandro Trossard starts. The other changes sees Ben White replace Jurren Timber at right back.

Arne Slot confirmed that Conor Bradley would be starting on Friday and the right back takes the place of Trent Alexander-Arnold after recovering from injury. Liverpool revert to a stronger team as they return to Anfield. Curtis Jones starts ahead of Alexis Mac Allister in midfield but Luis Diaz, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson are all back.