Arsenal travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in the first-leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final following last week’s controversial postponement

Following the announcement of last week’s postponement, Arsenal will finally make the trip to Anfield on Thursday to face Liverpool in the first-leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

It seems that in recent times, football and controversy go perfectly hand in hand, from the dubious decisions made by VAR to the havoc caused by the pandemic.

The events of the last seven days were no different and have not only caused uproar amongst supporters, but some would argue that it made a mockery of the system in which determines when a match should be re-arranged.

Just two days prior to the original date of the fixture, Liverpool submitted an application for the postponement of the first-leg due to a suspected COVID-19 outbreak amongst the coaching staff and players.

However, this week’s hosts were reportedly unwilling to inform the English Football League which players had been affected by a positive case or even how many they had, and as a result, the governing body made the decision to push the fixture back a week.

The Reds’ training facilities at the AXA Training Centre were subsequently closed at the time of the appeal, and once the news broke that they had been successful in their attempts, it was re-opened just two days later.

Surprisingly, their Third Round FA Cup clash with Shrewsbury Town was still able to take place, despite it being played under 72 hours after when they were due to take on Arsenal.

After Liverpool’s 4-1 win over Shrewsbury on Sunday, Jurgen Klopp revealed a shock admission in his post-match press conference.

‘We had last week a proper outbreak and it showed up that we had a lot of false positives but the rules are like they are, so all these players who are false positives couldn’t play,” said the German coach.

“The only real positive came from Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives.”

Despite the unusual circumstances, the EFL stand by the fact that the Merseyside club submitted enough evidence to justify their decision and the rumours of them opening an investigation into the matter have been put to bed.

As a result of the changes, the fixtures have been flipped with the Gunners now playing the first-leg away and the second-leg at home.

Both sides will be hoping to book their place in the final with their opponents looking likely to be Chelsea following the Blues’ 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge over London rivals Tottenham last Wednesday.

However, Arsenal will need to improve upon their performance after the Gunners’ poor display against Nottingham Forest saw them crash out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle.

Mikel Arteta’s side have been struggling with injuries and COVID-19 cases themselves with Granit Xhaka and the recently departed Florian Balogun both missing the last game due to the virus. Key players like Takehiro Tomiyasu and Emile Smith Rowe were also unavailable as a result of a tight groin and tight right calf respectively.

Not only this, but a combination of Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny leaving for the African Cup of Nations and allowing Ainsley Maitland-Niles to join AS Roma on loan, means Arteta finds himself in somewhat of a crisis in central midfield.

Last time out, the Spaniard opted to play 18-year-old academy prospect, Charlie Patino, alongside Albert Sambi Lokonga, however unsurprisingly the pair struggled due to their inexperience.

It is extremely unlikely that a replacement is brought in between now and the first-leg, but perhaps the Spanish manager will be hopeful that Xhaka is back available for the important top-four clash with rivals Tottenham at the weekend.

Jurgen Klopp will also be without a number of key names as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita are all away at AFCON while Thiago Alcantara will miss out with a hip injury and Trent Alexander-Arnold is expected to be unavailable due to testing positive for COVID-19.

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