If Arsenal can travel back to London from Anfield on Sunday with three points for the first time in nearly 11 years, no matter what happens to Manchester City and their trip to Southampton 24 hours earlier, the dreams of a first title in 19 years can be justified.
That is because Liverpool's stadium has generated only bad memories for Arsenal fans of late.
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Liverpool have won their last six home Premier League matches against Arsenal there, scoring at least three times in each match and 22 goals in total.
While their away form has been dreadful, Liverpool at home have been a different proposition this season, winning five of their last six in the Premier League, drawing the other. The last three wins there have been by an aggregate score 11-0.
The last time Arsenal travelled to Anfield
Mohamed Salah is enjoying Anfield at the moment, the Egyptian is looking to score in four consecutive home league appearances for the first time since a six-match run between January and June 2020.
And Arsenal are an opponent against whom he has a good record, having a hand in seven goals (five goals and two assists) in five appearances against them at Anfield.
If Arsenal are to claim a rare three points at Anfield, they must breach a defence that has not conceded there for their last seven hours and 26 minutes of league football, since Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's goal for Leicester City in December.
Perhaps the only Arsenal player with fond memories of the place is Leandro Trossard, who scored a hat-trick for Brighton & Hove Albion there earlier this season.
“It’s great to have a player that has experience of something really nice and positive from that stadium,” Arteta told the club's official website. “He was a crucial player on that day, it was a beautiful game to watch and that’s what we need; players with a lot of belief on that pitch, that we can go there and win it.”
Stronger on the road
Arteta was on the Arsenal team that beat Liverpool 2-0 on 2 September 2012, but has since suffered only defeat there as a player and manager. But he has instilled in Arsenal a formidable record on the road this season.
They boast the best away record in the league this season, with their 34 points from 14 matches, seven more than Man City. That already exceeds their tally of 28 away points from all of last season, when they lost nine times out of 19.
"We have been at a few grounds we haven’t won at in 17, 22 and 18 years but we have managed to do that," Arteta said when asked about ending his team's poor record at Anfield. "We are capable of doing it.
"We know we are going to have to be at our very best to win the game and certainly better than we were there last year when we just opened up and allowed Liverpool to attack open spaces in a really comfortable way."
The Arsenal defence has done better away from home this season and than at Anfield last time round, conceding only nine times and keeping nine clean sheets, compared with 18 goals conceded and three clean sheets at Emirates Stadium. But this could be their first away match without William Saliba, who has missed the last three matches with a back injury.
What has been behind the transformation of Arsenal’s away form this season?
An article in the Evening Standard reveals the routine introduced by Arteta that has helped to build that resilience.
For matches such as Sunday’s, the squad travel up to the location the day before a match, staying overnight at a hotel.
There they have dinner as a group the night before, with players and staff not sitting at the table with the same people each time, instead rotating round the colleagues they sit next to in order to grow camaraderie.
Dressing the dressing-room
Arteta and his team have also looked to give the away dressing-room an Arsenal "feel", putting up posters of images of the team on the wall or buzz words.
Two of the main buzz words posted up are "IDENTITY" (“Intensity, Discipline, Enjoy, Non-negotiables, Trust, Improve, Team, You”) and “UNITY (“Unique, Non-negotiables, Identity, Tradition, You).
For their short trip across Fulham last month, where the Gunners won 3-0, a replica of the Arsenal clock even made its way into the Gunners’ dressing-room and was shown on Oleksandr Zinchenko’s Instagram.
The image also displayed the motivational posters on the wall at Craven Cottage.
Arteta explained in an interview with ESPN the reasoning behind the clock’s presence.
"It was something I related to a few days before on where we were as a team and club and what we have to stand for," Arteta said. "It was something private in the dressing room just before the game and something that's in the history of our club. We have to be really conscious of that and when we have that history and we use it in the right way, that's a really powerful thing to have.
"The reality is that every game is so important, the margins are so small and we are now going to have to do something incredible until the end of the season to earn the right to be there."
A first win in a decade at Anfield would be seen as just one more incredible thing across an unbelievable season by Arsenal fans.
