Lost Liverpool need a miracle to avoid an Arsenal annihilation at the Emirates

When Liverpool beat Arsenal at Anfield at the tail end of August, the common consensus was that very little had changed over the summer. The reigning Premier League champions hadn't defended well at all in their first two games of the season, against Bournemouth and Newcastle, but they remained 'mentality monsters', as underlined by the way in which they conjured up another late goal to beat their principal title rivals.

"Liverpool have got what Arteta and Arsenal haven't right now - that edge, that something, that belief to go and win big matches at big away grounds," former Manchester United right-back Gary Neville argued on Sky Sports, after a fantastic free-kick from Dominik Szoboszlai settled a rather poor game in the home side's favour. "Liverpool believe they should be winning these matches and I'm not sure Arsenal do. They're happy not to lose and it's costing them."

Neville's former team-mate, Roy Keane, added: "The sign of a brilliant team is winning matches when you are not at your very best - that is what champions do. It is early in the season, too. They will improve no doubt."

Liverpool didn't, though. On the contrary, the Reds regressed to such an alarming extent that their title defence was over before the middle of November. 

The obvious question, then, is how has it come to this? Why are Liverpool turning up at the Emirates an embarrassing 14 points behind a team that they left trailing in their wake last season, and bested through a combination of clever tactical tweaks and sheer force of will just over four months ago? The short answer is, an almost complete collective failure at the club.

The day after the win over Arsenal at Anfield, Liverpool agreed two transfers: a £125 million ($170m) deal with Newcastle for wantaway striker Alexander Isak; and the £35m ($47m) signing of Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace. Only one of those moves went through, though, and not the more important of the two.  

It's certainly easy to understand why Liverpool felt they couldn't pass up the opportunity to sign Isak, a proven Premier League performer with his best years ahead of him. But did they really have to make such an enormous investment in a No.9 having already signed Hugo Ekitike for £69m ($93m)? Not at all. Not when a low-cost alternative to the French forward would have sufficed - and that's not hindsight talking either. 

Even before Isak's almost inevitable fitness problems after his summer strike, signing the Swede was never a necessity. Having two top players competing for a starting spot was certainly exciting, the stuff of fantasy football, but, in reality, It would always have made much more sense to spend big on a versatile winger such as Antoine Semenyo after the sale of Luis Diaz.

The British-record fee for Isak also made a mockery of Liverpool's attempts to get Guehi for as little money as possible by waiting until deadline day to conclude a transfer that could - and indeed should - have been wrapped up before the season began. Remember, Ibrahima Konate had already made it clear that he could no longer be relied upon and he'd just entered the final year of his contract as it was, while Joe Gomez's incessant injury issues were also well-established at that point, making the acquisition of another experienced centre-back an absolute must.

A team that spent more than £400m ($540m) on new players during the summer has, thus, been left in the rather remarkable position of needing new players midway through the season - and yet it doesn't look like they're going to get anyway, with both Guehi and Semenyo looking destined for Manchester City - which only adds insult to Liverpool's injury issues.

Of course, even accounting for the fact that Liverpool got their priorities wrong, and were desperately unlucky to lose the very promising Giovanni Leoni for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign after he suffered an ACL injury on debut, there's no legitimate excuse for the way in which they've defended this season.

The Reds' set-piece struggles are so well-established at this stage that they've become a cliche, meaning it was no surprise to see set-piece coach Aaron Briggs removed from his role after the concession of a 12th goal from a dead-ball situation in the woeful win over Wolves on December 27.

However, there's not a single member of the coaching staff that should be feeling secure in their position right now - and that includes Slot, who has spoken an awful lot about Liverpool's problems this season without coming up with anything other than a few stop-gap solutions here and there.

The decision to drop Mohamed Salah before the Egyptian headed off to the Africa Cup of Nations has arguably made the Reds more difficult to beat. After a shocking six defeats in seven Premier League games between September 27 and November 22, Liverpool haven't lost any of their past eight outings - but the most underwhelming undefeated run in Premier League history is almost certain to come to an ignominious end at the Emirates.

Even Slot has admitted that the Reds have drawn too many games over the past five weeks, with six points dropped against promoted teams, Sunderland and Leeds (twice), before another two were thrown away at mid-table Fulham on Sunday. However, Liverpool haven't played particularly well in any of their five league wins since losing 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest, and were downright lucky to beat Brighton, Wolves and even nine-man Tottenham.

Granted, fortune hasn't always favoured Liverpool of late. Isak being injured in the process of scoring at Spurs was a seriously bitter blow, as a potential season-changing goal led to a potential season-ending injury, while Gomez's inability to stay fit has allowed Konate to continue returning to the scene of the crime.

There's also no denying that a number of key men are underperforming horribly this season, chief among them Alexis Mac Allister, resulting in the Reds struggling to exert anything like the same pressure on opponents. Ryan Gravenberch's topsy-turvy form has also robbed Liverpool of the crucial level of control they used to exert over games - particularly those that were in the balance right up until the final few minutes. The net result is the champions conceding four goals after the 90th minute this season, resulting in the loss of six Premier League points.

Consequently, there was an unmistakable air of inevitability about Fulham's equaliser at Craven Cottage, even though the identity of the scorer (Harrison Reed) and the nature of the strike (a 30-yard screamer) both came as a surprise. So, while Curtis Jones understandably said that the late, late leveller was "hard to take", the truth of the matter was that Liverpool had once again been hard to watch - particularly during a dismal first half in which they failed to register a single shot on target.

It's unlikely that Slot's side will be any easier on the eye at the Emirates. The former Feyenoord coach has been hurt by accusations that Liverpool are now playing a 'dull and boring' brand of football, but rather tellingly says that he doesn't "completely disagree" with the assessment.

Slot stated in his pre-match press conference that he would simply "use different words" to describe Liverpool's current style of play, while also arguing that "certain things should be taken into account", namely the unavailability of some important players.

Slot also once again argued that Liverpool's primary problem when it comes to creating chances is that they're continually faced with deep-lying defences that use long balls to bypass their press, with the obvious implication being that they're still capable of playing good football against teams that take them on.

One can be sure, though, that Arsenal won't make the same mistake they made at Anfield and will go for the jugular on Thursday - which is a truly terrifying thought for Liverpool fans.

As well as every single set-piece being fraught with danger, it's not hard to imagine Gravenberch & Co. struggling to get to grips with a seemingly revitalised Martin Odegaard and a dominant Declan Rice, while it also feels like it won't make a blind bit of difference whether Andy Robertson or Milos Kerkez starts at left-back, with Bukayo Saka still set to run riot down Arsenal's right wing.

With Ekitike also expected to miss the game through injury, the visitors could really struggle to trouble the strongest defence in the Premier League - even if Florian Wirtz might get a little more space than usual to work with on the break.

Liverpool unquestionably still have sufficient quality within their ranks to hurt Arsenal and they're clearly annoyed by the fact that they're arriving in north London fighting for fourth rather than first. That's why Van Dijk, his team-mates and Slot are actually looking forward to the game. It represents a chance for them to show that while their title defence is already over, their season is not.

"We still have a lot to play for in the league and we're also in the FA Cup and the Champions League," Slot said on Wednesday while arguing that the Reds could yet do some serious damage in Europe with a full-strength squad. "These are knockout games and these are games where you can face teams like Arsenal, so also for that reason it is an important game for us to see where we are in a one-off game, to see where we are against a very, very good Arsenal."

Most fans are afraid of finding out, though. Back in August, it felt like Arsenal would have been happy not to lose. This time around, it's the visitors who would be delighted with a draw - which is perhaps the best indicator of just how far the champions have fallen.