LONDON, Sporting Alert – Roberto Firmino will make his first Liverpool start in tonight’s Barclays Premier League clash with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium.
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Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will be without his centre-back pair of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker for this contest.
Mertesacker misses the game because of illness, while the club also confirmed that Koscielny will not feature because he has a mild back injury.
This means Gabriel and Calum Chambers will start as the centre-back pair, who could find it difficult to deal with Liverpool attacking players Christian Benteke, Firmino and Philippe Coutinho.
With Jordan Henderson out summer signing Firmino has been handed a place in the starting team, as manager Brendan Rodgers makes three changes to his lineup from the last outing.
Meanwhile, according to the reports from the Gunners’ dressing room, Gabriel will be the man marking Benteke tonight on set-pieces and corner kick so that is going to be a battle to watch out for.
Midfielders Emre Can and Lucas Leiva will both start in the midfield, which means James Milner will play a more attacking role out wide.
The visitors are also without Adam Lallana, who picked up an injury.
Divock Origi, Danny Ings and Jordon Ibe are all on the bench for Liverpool, which seek its third successive victory to start the season.
Meanwhile, Arsenal make two changes from the side that edged Crystal Palace, but Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain remain on the substitutes bench.
Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud all start again for Wenger.
Beside Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini are also on the bench for Arsenal, which seek its second win of the season.
Frenchman Olivier Giroud, who has scored 42 times for Arsenal, will lead the attack once again.
Arsenal v Liverpool Teams
Arsenal Team: Cech, Bellerin, Chambers, Gabriel, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Ozil, Cazorla, Sanchez, Giroud. Subs: Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Ospina, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Flamini
Liverpool Team: Mignolet, Can, Lovren, Skrtel, Clyne, Milner, Coutinho, Lucas, Gomez, Firmino, Benteke. Subs: Sakho, Moreno, Origi, Ings, Ibe, Bogdan, Rossiter
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
