Arsenal's next trip to Merseyside will now include final Liverpool humiliation

Arsenal will be back on Merseyside next month. It gives them plenty of time to get used to the idea of giving Liverpool a guard of honour. Second place beckons for the third successive season for Mikel Arteta’s nearly-men after they clipped another hurdle in the Premier League title race.

It’s now going to take a collapse of Devon Loch proportions to prevent Arne Slot’s team being crowned champions by the time the Gunners venture to the opposite side of Stanley Park on May 11.

Arsenal had to win their last-ever visit to Goodison on the day when the 177th Grand National was being staged a few miles down the road from at Aintree.

They didn’t - and now Liverpool need just 11 points from their final eight games to take the title.

Just to really rub North London noses in it, by the time Arteta takes his team to Anfield on May 11, the runaway leaders will surely be home and hosed and expecting their closest challengers to pay their due respects.

Arteta has insisted he will never give up his quest to reel Liverpool in. But his team selection suggests he was already looking towards the Champions League for salvation before a ball had been kicked.

Arsenal travel to Real Madrid for the first leg of their quarter final on Tuesday night, with defender Gabriel joining Kai Havertz on the casualty list. Yet Arteta still named Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey on the bench.

Saka and Martinelli came on at half-time, with Arsenal a goal to the good after Leandro Trossard fired them ahead with their first shot on target. But by the time Timber joined the fray just after the hour, the Gunners were once again chasing the game.

Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images) Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Myles Lewis-Skelly has been on a steep learning curve this season - and this was another day for him to discover that it can be a cruel game.

The teenager misjudged the bounce of the ball before tangling with Jack Harrison. No-one in a red shirt thought it warranted a penalty, but referee Darren England did - and Iliman Ndiaye duly sent David Raya the wrong way. Sending on Odegaard with 20 minutes to go was the final throw of the dice that at least added some urgency to the visitors’ promptings, but it wasn’t enough.

Perhaps Arteta felt his team would still have too much quality for an Everton side that hadn’t won for five games with their place in the top-flight secure, especially just three days after a gruelling Mersey derby. But Everton are desperate to depart Goodison at the end of the season with as much of a bang as possible.

Arteta is one of the Toffees’ favourite sons. He knows better than most what the old stadium means to Merseysiders with a blue tinge. Everton were never going to make it easy, even if it meant doing the old enemy a favour.

The Spaniard spent five-and-a-half years as a midfielder of some virtue under Moyes, winning the club’s Player of the Year trophy twice, before taking his craft to Arsenal. But he really needs to put some more silverware on his CV.

Arteta has been in the job for more than five years now. Within seven months of arriving at the Emirates, he lifted the FA Cup with the players left by Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery. Since then, nothing. Unless you count the Community Shield.

Now it’s all about the European Cup, a trophy that Arsenal have only got a sniff of once before when they were lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final.

Jakub Kiwior didn’t disappoint after being asked to step in for Gabriel. But while Everton striker Beto is a willing runner, he is no Kylian Mbappe or Vinicius Junior. Getting past Madrid would be quite an achievement.

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