Arsenal make five changes to the XI named ahead of the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday. Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Saed Kolasinac, Dani Ceballos and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are all benched, making way for Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Lucas Torreira, Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka. This weekend’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City perhaps very much in mind there.

Liverpool make two changes to the team sent out to draw with Burnley on Saturday. The youngsters Neco Williams and Curtis Jones drop to the bench, stepping aside for the not-particularly-older Trent Alexander-Arnold and, returning to his old stomping ground, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Arsenal: Martinez, Holding, Luiz, Tierney, Cedric, Torreira, Xhaka, Nelson, Pepe, Lacazette, Saka.
Subs: Bellerin, Papastathopoulos, Ceballos, Aubameyang, Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Willock, Kolasinac, Macey.

Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mane.
Subs: Lovren, Keita, Adrian, Minamino, Shaqiri, Origi, Jones, Elliott, Williams.

It’s fair to say these two clubs know how to put on a show. Since the pair drew 0-0 at the Emirates in August 2015, they’ve met nine times, and here are the final scorelines: 3-3, 4-3, 3-1, 4-0, 3-3, 1-1, 5-1, 3-1, 5-5. And so a cry goes up from the millions of neutrals without any skin in this particular game: “More, please!”

Arsenal fans may demur. They’ve played their part in all those matches, but haven’t managed to win any of them. Their last victory against today’s opponents came in April 2015, when a sensational eight-minute, three-goal, first-half blitz dispatched a Liverpool side coming apart at the seams. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez were the heroes for Arsene Wenger’s side that day; Brendan Rodgers was struggling to get a tune out of Alberto Moreno, Joe Allen and Lazar Markovic. Times change, huh.

Related: Joy of Six: Liverpool v Arsenal matches | Scott Murray

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