Roberto Firmino out to eclipse Robbie Fowler by rekindling Arsenal hot streak

September 28, 2020
Joanna Durkan

Roberto Firmino could eclipse some of Liverpool’s greatest ever goalscorers by rekindling his hot streak against Arsenal, with a double required against the Gunners.

Firmino has scored more goals for Liverpool against Arsenal than he has done against any other team – he has eight, three more than against any other club. They have come in 11 appearances.

Only Robbie Fowler, Gordon Hodgson and Jack Parkinson in Liverpool’s history (all with 9) have ever scored more league goals against the Gunners than Firmino (8).

Home Comforts

Liverpool are unbeaten at home in the last 60 league games (49 wins, 11 draws) and are closing in on club record of 63, set between 1978-81.

They’ve dropped only six points out of the last 120 at home in the league (winning 37 and drawing 3 of 40 matches).

And Liverpool have lost at home in the league under Jurgen Klopp four times in 92 outings.

Milestones in Reach

Liverpool require three goals to reach 400 in all league games under Jurgen Klopp – this will be his 185th match.

Mo Salah needs one goal to record 100 in his English club career and a hat-trick would see him record a century of goals for the Reds.

A total of eight different players have scored in Liverpool’s opening four games this season – a new club record.

This will be Klopp’s 50th Premier League game against the other ‘big-six’ clubs. He has lost eight.

Goals Galore

The last eight Anfield meetings in all competitions have produced a staggering 44 goals while in the last 16 clashes at all venues 72 goals have been scored.

Liverpool have scored 25 times in the last seven league clashes on Merseyside – won the last four by margins of 3-1, 4-0, 5-1 and 3-1.

The Reds have kept one clean sheet in the last 14 Anfield encounters. There has been only one goalless draw in the last 42 league encounters.

The biggest home league win over Arsenal was in 1964, where the 5-0 victory clinched a league title success.

A total of 162 goals scored in Premier League encounters with Arsenal – the highest-scoring Reds fixture in the era.

Formbidable

No Liverpool player since Fernando Torres in 2007-08 has scored back-to-back league hat-tricks at Anfield for the Reds – the Spaniard netting 3 against Middlesbrough and West Ham. Only one other player since the war – Jack Balmer in November 1946 – has achieved the feat.

Mo Salah could yet equal the achievement.

Liverpool’s front three have scored five goals between them in the two league games so far this season – more than they have accumulated in any of the previous seasons they have been together.

Fastest to 400

Last weekend’s win at Chelsea meant that Jurgen Klopp reached 400 league points in fewer games than any other previous Liverpool manager. He did so in 184 matches, 13 fewer than Kenny Dalglish.

Gunners in Focus

Alexandre Lacazette has found the net in both of Arsenal’s league games so far. The last to score in the opening three league games of a season for the club is Olivier Giroud (in a run of four) in 2013-14.

Lacazette’s goal against West Ham last weekend was his 50th for Arsenal in all competitions and in doing so he became the fourth Frenchman to reach this milestone for the club after Thierry Henry (228), Robert Pires (84) and Giroud (105).

Only Manchester United (25) have won more league visits to Anfield than Arsenal who have been successful on 24 occasions.

They have failed to score in only two of their last 19 trips to Anfield in the top-flight.

Not won away to one of the so-called big six in any of the last 27 Premier League meetings – since a victory at Manchester City in January 2015.

And they have finished outside the top four in each of the last four seasons. They have not done so in a fifth successive campaign since 1985/86.