Liverpool lost yet again in the Champions League, 2-1 at home to Fiorentina, while the Gunners suffered a 1-0 reversal at Olympiacos, although manager Arsene Wenger did rest a whole host of first-team regulars.
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Rafa Benitez will have been boosted by the first-team return of Alberto Aquilani, a £20million summer signing from AS Roma, as well as their talismanic striker Fernando Torres on Wednesday.
The Spaniard has missed much of his team's disappointing run of results that has now yielded just three wins from 13 fixtures.
On the back of this poor sequence of results, the Reds sit in a lowly seventh position, well below their expected standard.
Wenger's outfit occupy third position, eight points behind leaders Chelsea although they do have a game in hand on their London rivals.
The Gunners boss was not overly concerned that his side slipped to defeat in Greece but was in fact proud of the display his youngsters put on.
Kerrea Gilbert, Fran Merida, Carlos Vela and Jack Wilshere all featured and performed admirably in a side with an average age of just 21.
The Frenchman fielded two debutants, 18-year-old pair Kyle Bartley and Tom Cruise.
Star striker Robin van Persie's surgery to reconstruct ankle ligaments is expected to keep him out for another three to four months with injury-plagued Tomas Rosicky also out with a groin strain.
Kieran Gibbs (fractured metatarsal), Johan Djouoru (knee) and Nicklas Bendtner (hernia) also remain on the sidelines.
Liverpool have turned the corner as far as their injury problems are concerned. Ryan Babel, who is nursing a ankle knock, is the only player among Benitez's ranks that is causing concern, but he is expected to be fit for Sunday's crunch clash.
Source: DSG
