Bukayo Saka Arsenal injury 'return' teased before Liverpool as 'vulnerable' point made

Arsenal are looking to keep pace in the Premier League title race after Manchester City pulled six points clear on Saturday afternoon.

Erling Haaland's goal was enough in a 1-0 win over strugglers Southampton. The contribution saw them return to the top of the table ahead of Liverpool, two points clear of Arne Slot's team, who now travel to north London on Sunday afternoon for a mouth-watering match-up.

Mikel Arteta has stressed about his injury issues and selection problems ahead of their latest table-topping match. Captain Martin Odegaard and William Saliba will miss the visit from the Merseysiders through injury and suspension respectively - and are big misses.

Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are doubts for the showdown after suffering problems in recent weeks. Calafiori was the latest worry after limping off during Tuesday night's win over Shakhtar Donetsk.

Saka hasn't featured for Arsenal since before October's international break after he picked up a hamstring injury for England against Greece. Timber has been out for nearly a month, meanwhile, and Ronald Koeman has opted against selecting him in the Netherlands' provisional squad for November's round of fixtures.

Saka and Timber 'break the internet'

Images emerged on social media of Saka and Timber 'with the Arsenal squad' in the team hotel on Saturday night. The development came after Arteta cast scrutiny over their proposed involvement against the Reds this weekend.

"He's done a bit of training on the grass. How far we can get him before Sunday is another question," the Spaniard said on Saka during his pre-match press conference.

On Timber, he added: "We expected him to be further back than where he is at the moment, but again we have to wait and see."

football.london says: It's easy to fall into the trap of believing everything that you see on social media and the credibility of those images remains unclear, whether they were taken on Saturday or ahead of a previous another competitive outing. Needless to say, with little action in recent weeks and months, both players being with the squad does not make them bona fide starters to face Liverpool, but the development is a boost, whichever way that's framed.

'Must-win' for 'vulnerable' Arsenal

Former Liverpool manager Graeme Souness has described Arsenal as vulnerable and reckons Sunday is 'must-win' in order for them to avoid falling away from the pace-setters.

"We are only eight games into the season, but this already feels like a 'must-win' for Arsenal," he said in his column for The Daily Mail. "It's certainly a bigger game for them than it is Liverpool, in terms of how it impacts their season, and their immediate welfare.

"Lose and they will be seven points behind their opponents. Given such fine margins of recent seasons in the title race, that would feel like a big lead to give two excellent rivals.

"With that, there will be talk of their challenge taking a serious dent, and the pressure on the games after - trips to Newcastle and Chelsea - will be huge. A defeat on Sunday would take some recovering from, and they would have to win some very big matches to get people believing again.

"I'm not sure how some of their players would handle that. But that's the price on the ticket if you're a big player at a big club - deal with it! And the best way to do that? It's very simple; go and beat Liverpool."

football.london says:It's become quite the topic of discussion in the last 48 hours, is Sunday a must-win? Some pundits believe so, supporters have brushed off the notion just 12 games into the Premier League season. Arsenal fans are more than aware of the challengers competing against City, and the small margins for error. But there are plenty of twists in any old Premier League season, you would suspect this campaign will be no different.