Liverpool forward Sadio Mané. (Photo : Getty Images)
Last season's English top flight runners-up Arsenal FC is scheduled to clash with an improved Liverpool FC squad on Sunday, August 14 at the Emirates Stadium to open their respective 2016-2017 Premier League campaigns.
Arsenal is currently plagued with a lot of injuries especially to their backline, beginning with incoming team captain Per Mertesacker who is sidelined by a knee injury.
Last Sunday, the Gunners defeated Manchester City, 3-2, in a friendly match at the Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg, Sweden, but it came with a cost as center back Gabriel Paulista was injured, The Guardian reported.
Gabriel was just the latest defender in Arsene Wenger's roster who will be unavailable this Sunday as Laurent Koscielny has just returned from a layoff while Carl Jenkinson is still recovering from an ACL tear.
With the shortage, 18-year-old Krystian Bielik is expected to start the game at central defense. Wenger is reported to be waiting for the arrival of defender Shkodran Mustafi, who the club had recently acquired from Valencia for £30 million.
Up front, the Gunners also have a lot of availability issues with Danny Welbeck still out with a meniscus tear while Olivier Giroud had just come back from his Euro 2016 rest and will miss the opening game.
Meanwhile, Liverpool is all geared up for the new season and had been remarkable in their preseason tune-ups.
Their most impressive preseason friendly win was a 4-0 dismantling of FC Barcelona in an International Champions Cup game on Aug. 6 where head coach Jürgen Klopp used a 4-3-3 with new recruit Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, and Philippe Coutinho set at the attacking front.
However, just hours later, they lost their final preseason game to Mainz also at a score of 0-4 with them this time on the losing end, as per Daily Mail Online.
Klopp's team that played against Mainz is a very different one than that who crushed Barça, which indicates the German manager's penchant on experimenting with lineup formations.
The Reds have an opportunity to begin their season with a bang as they face a banged-up Arsenal XI this opening day weekend.
The predicted result is a close 2-1 win for Liverpool.
Arsenal starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Cech; Bellerín, Bielik, Holding, Monreal; Coquelin, Xhaka; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Iwobi; Sanchez
Liverpool starting lineup (4-4-2 formation): Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Milner; Lallana, Can, Wijnaldum; Mané, Firmino, Coutinho
