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Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal
5 mins: A lively start at Anfield as Gakpo looks to test Arsenal once more before the fit-again Tzolis then gallops forward and earns the first corner of the game, which is easily cleared.
Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal
3 mins: Raya gathers gratefully as Gakpo looks to flick a clever ball over the top for the run of Wirtz.
Gabriel is unhappy and holding his face after a clash with Isak.
He’s now complaining bitterly to referee Andy Madley.
Gary Neville calls him “embarrassing” on the Sky Sports coverage.
Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal
1 min: Nyoni is straight into the thick of the action as he flies into an iffy challenge on Odegaard.
Just a free-kick.
A few minutes later and that could easily have been a booking for the 19-year-old on his first Premier League start.
Here we go!
Can Arsenal win a Premier League match at Anfield for the first time since September 2012?
We’re about to find out...
This is Liverpool’s closest home game to Remembrance Sunday, so we will have a period of silence before kick-off.
Poppy wreaths are being laid in the centre circle at Anfield before a rendition of The Last Post.
Poppies feature on the front of both sets of shirts this afternoon.
Here come the teams at Anfield, led out by respective captains Virgil van Dijk and Martin Odegaard.
A warm embrace on the touchline between childhood friends and team-mates Andoni Iraola and Mikel Arteta.
‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ is now belting out around the ground.
Andy Madley is today’s referee, with Stuart Attwell on VAR duty.
Kick-off is imminent.
Andoni Iraola has explained his surprise decision to hand 19-year-old midfielder Trey Nyoni a high-profile first Premier League start for Liverpool against Arsenal this afternoon.
“He has shown us he has the level,” Iraola told Sky Sports.
“The thinking is that he is playing very well, we trust him. He has good control on the ball, he understands the game well, without the ball he is smart to deal with all the complications.
“He is really good on those things. We have to consider we have very good subs for the second half.
“It gives us good options, but we definitely trust Trey to do well."
A penny for Ryan Gravenberch’s thoughts...
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Final preparations at Anfield, where kick-off is approaching fast and the atmosphere is building nicely.
A real big-game feel around this one, as you would expect.
Let’s hope it lives up to the hype...
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Standard Sport’s Matt Verri at Anfield
Anfield is one of the few grounds that Arteta and his players have left to conquer.
Not since 2012 have they won here in the Premier League.
They have become far more competitive in these matches in recent seasons, having had several years of losing heavily to Jurgen Klopp sides, but taking that next step and all three points is what Arteta will be desperate to do.
Arsenal still do not know how much time Bukayo Saka is set to miss through injury, though reports have said that it could be up to eight weeks.
Saka limped out of the heavyweight Champions League draw with Bayern Munich last month due to a quad injury and the amount of fluid in the area means that follow-up scans to determine the exact severity of the problem were delayed.
“He needed another scan to see how the amount of fluid that was there was resolving, whether the tendon is touched and how badly it is touched,” Mikel Arteta said of Saka on Friday.
“Afterwards, we'll know more about it.”
Asked if he thought Saka would miss England’s Nations League games against Croatia and Spain later this month, Arteta replied: “Again, I don't know.
“It looks like it, but we'll have to wait and see next week.”
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The fitness of Noni Madueke will come as a big relief for Mikel Arteta, who was otherwise facing a bit of a selection crisis on the right wing at Anfield with Bukayo Saka sidelined and Max Dowman suspended.
Christos Tzolis coming straight back in on the opposite flank after a month out injured is also hardly a vote of confidence in Eberechi Eze.
Arsenal really need Kai Havertz to step it up this afternoon in attack.
Here’s more from Standard Sport’s Matt Verri at Anfield...
Standard Sport’s Matt Verri at Anfield
The team news is about as positive as Arsenal could have hoped for this afternoon.
Madueke and Calafiori are both fit to start, and Arteta has taken the gamble of throwing Tzolis straight back into the side after a month out with a hamstring issue.
That’s a big, big call. Havertz gets the nod to lead the line - he has to be miles better than he was in midweek against Fleetwood.
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Arsenal show five changes from their 2-0 home win over Everton last weekend, with Riccardo Calafiori, Declan Rice and Christos Tzolis all deemed fit to start.
Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz also come in as Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres all make way.
Noni Madueke also starts after his ankle issue.
It’s nine changes from the Fleetwood debacle, with only Timber and Havertz retaining their starting berths.
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That is a first Premier League start for Trey Nyoni, by the way. What an occasion for it!
It’s seven changes from the Carabao Cup last-16 win over Chelsea on penalties, with Alisson, Jeremy Jacquet, Milos Kerkez, Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz, Bradley Barcola and Alexander Isak all returning as expected.
Out go Giorgi Mamardashvili, Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas, Ryan Gravenberch, Lewis Koumas, James McConnell and Rio Ngumoha.
Ronald Araujo moves back out to right-back, while Cody Gakpo goes from up front back to the flank.
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Liverpool make only one change from their last Premier League outing - the 2-0 home win over high-flying Brighton last weekend - as Trey Nyoni gets the nod over Ryan Gravenberch in midfield.
The highly-rated teenager keeps his spot after impressing in place of Alexis Mac Allister against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup in midweek.
Otherwise there are no surprises from Andoni Iraola, who has Dominik Szoboszlai and Victor Munoz both back on the bench after injury.
There’s no Federico Chiesa in the squad at all.
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Arsenal XI: Raya, Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Guimaraes, Odegaard, Madueke, Tzolis, Havertz
Subs: Kepa, Mosquera, White, Hincapie, Eze, Gyokeres, Merino, Zubimendi, Lewis-Skelly
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Araujo, Van Dijk, Jacquet, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Nyoni, Gakpo, Wirtz, Barcola, Isak
Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Szoboszlai, Tsimikas, Munoz, Gravenberch, Koumas, Ngumoha
The calm before the storm at a grey and rainy Anfield, where official lineups will drop very shortly indeed.
Stay tuned...
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There were no surprises as to the main topic of conversation at Mikel Arteta’s pre-Liverpool press conference.
The Arsenal boss faced several questions on Max Dowman, and particularly his visibly furious reaction to the youngster’s late dismissal at Fleetwood.
Arteta passionately doubled down on it despite the criticism he has received since in some quarters, insisting - “This is the Premier League, not Disneyland”.
Arteta said he was “very disappointed” that the FA had rejected Arsenal’s appeal against the red card, feeling that Dowman’s retaliation had been minimal after a heavy challenge from Harrison Neal - one that Arteta felt could have left him with a broken foot.
Arteta’s anger at Dowman stemmed from the conversations they had pre-match, in which he warned him not to react to any rough treatment after also being sent off for England’s Under-19s earlier in October.
"The reaction when I don't win, you know what the reaction is? I'm p****d off, big time. So we need to be ready for that,” Arteta said.
“This is the environment and this is the reality. Otherwise, we are in Disneyland. We are not in Disneyland.
"We are in the Premier League at this level and we look after him so much that you cannot imagine.
“But at the same time, we're going to demand him like to anybody else because he needs to earn the right to play.
"Otherwise, the rest of the boys, what are they going to tell me? You need to be fair."
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There are so many intriguing subplots to today’s massive game, from Arsenal’s Anfield hoodoo, to a potential title battle between these sides, to Arsenal potentially going top above Manchester City or Liverpool maybe moving just three points behind.
There is also the fact that Andoni Iraola won three of his last four matches against Arsenal while in charge at former club Bournemouth.
The game also pits together childhood friends Iraola and Mikel Arteta, who both hail from the Basque Country and each learned their trade at amateur club Antiguoko in San Sebastian before moving on to Athletic Club and Barcelona respectively.
“Last week we were against Inigo [Perez], against Xabi [Alonso], now it’s going to be against Mikel, so a lot of friends on the opposition bench,” Iraola said of coming up against Arteta.
“I think it’s a good thing in terms of spending at least five, 10 minutes after the games normally with them. But I know that he will give us a very difficult game so we will have to be at our very best.”
Arteta said of facing Iraola: "It's a privilege. I've discussed that many, many times.
“Someone that has been your team-mate, that you spend so many beautiful moments together when we were younger, to be facing each other, to be close, massive clubs in this country, in Europe, in a big match like this. It's just, it's a blessing.”
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As mentioned already, Mikel Arteta was part of the last Arsenal team to have won at Anfield in the Premier League.
Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla both grabbed their first Gunners goals either side of half-time in an Abou Diaby-inspired 2-0 triumph on Merseyside back in September 2012.
It was a first win of that season and third successive clean sheet for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, condemning Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool to their worst start to a campaign for 50 years after he had succeeded Kenny Dalglish that summer.
Arsenal went on to finish fourth that season, while Liverpool came in seventh.
Here is how both sides lined up that day, to make you feel old...
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Jose Enrique, Gerrard, Allen, Sahin, Borini, Suarez, Sterling
Arsenal: Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud
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