Liverpool are deserved Premier League champions and Arsenal will show them the necessary respect when they line up to form a guard of honour at Anfield on Sunday.
But once the niceties are complete, showing Liverpool too much respect will be dangerous.
Mikel Arteta has three games to secure another season in the Champions League for Arsenal and he will have learned from Wednesday’s Champions League defeat at Paris Saint-Germain on how elite sides should tackle giants in their own back yard.
The Gunners went after PSG at the Parc des Princes, pressing them high up the pitch, and their 20 shots was the most an away team have had there all season.
Arsenal stamped their physicality on a more technical PSG midfield and they will need to do that again at Anfield.
Arne Slot has taken what Jurgen Klopp left him after his Liverpool rebuild and enhanced it. They don’t press as much as they did with Klopp’s heavy-metal football and are spending more of their energy with the ball than without it.
Arne Slot has led Liverpool to the Premier League title in his first season on Merseyside
Reds manager Slot replaced Jurgen Klopp, pictured saying goodbye to Anfield in May last year
Liverpool sealed the title on April 27 and will receive a guard of honour from Arsenal on Sunday
Liverpool move the ball swiftly, usually starting with the unflappable Virgil van Dijk who dictates the game by punching the ball into midfield or playing one of his raking passes into the Reds’ front three.
When the ball goes into midfield, Slot has found a formula that has turned Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch into a trio as good as any in Europe. Gravenberch is the defensive minder and when he lets the ball roll across his body and goes forward, that’s the trigger for Szoboszlai to maraud forward and for Trent Alexander-Arnold to fly through the middle from right back.
When they break forward, Mac Allister floats between attack and defence with high technical ability and intelligence.
Once Liverpool break through midfield the front three of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz make darting runs off the ball and, in the blink of an eye, Slot’s men go from the edge of their area to having six attackers in the opposition box.
The slight change in how Liverpool win the ball back has helped them become more balanced and level-headed to play the football they need to be winners.
Arteta, meanwhile, has turned Arsenal into one of Europe’s elite sides but must now find a way to take that next step. He knows he has made progress and he has won an FA Cup but he will not be satisfied until he gets on his hands on a Premier League title because he knows that’s where he will be judged.
Arsenal must use the pain of defeat to chase future silverware but for now, they must channel it to get a result at Anfield to secure Champions League football.
For Liverpool, Sunday is about celebrating their success and further underlining their supremacy by showing Arsenal how champions perform.
