Dominik Szoboszlai has warned Arsenal that there is still a long way to go in the Premier League title race ahead of Liverpool's trip to Emirates Stadium on Thursday. 

Liverpool currently find themselves 14 points adrift of Mikel Arteta's league leaders, despite going on an eight-game unbeaten run in the top-flight (W4 D4) since November.

It has been a dramatic drop-off in form for the Premier League champions, who started the 2025-26 campaign with five wins out of five, one of which came against Arsenal. 

Szoboszlai's stunning 83rd-minute free-kick settled the contest at Anfield, and any sort of result for Liverpool this time around will pile the pressure back onto the Gunners. 

"It's a long way," Szoboszlai told Sky Sports. "The Premier League is not easy.

"You don't win it by January, so I don't think we are playing against the champions. They're playing against the champions.

"They know as well. We know as well. Of course, they are one of the favourites for this year. Unbelievable team, really good players.

"But we shouldn't forget about Manchester City and Aston Villa, who is doing very good. So yeah, we don't play against the champions. They play against the champions."

Arsenal are assigned an 86.2% chance of sitting top of the pile according to the Opta supercomputer, with only Manchester City (9.8%) and Aston Villa (3.9%) believed to be in with a chance of lifting the title this season in its simulations. 

Liverpool enter the clash in north London off the back of a 2-2 draw with Fulham as Harrison Reed's stoppage-time stunner sealed a share of the spoils at Craven Cottage. 

The Reds do have a good record against Arsenal, though. Against no side have the Gunners lost more Premier League games than they have against Liverpool (26, level with Manchester United).

Liverpool are also looking to complete the Premier League double over Arsenal for the eighth time, and first since 2021-22. Their seven 'doubles' is already the most any side has against the Gunners in the competition.

Virgil van Dijk is relishing the chance of taking on the league leaders and believes it is a chance for his team to put down a marker for the rest of the season. 

"First of all, we will recover from this, but from Tuesday on, we will definitely look at the strength that they have," Van Dijk said.

"They have a fantastic squad with players on the pitch and also coming from the bench.

"Listen, we all know at home they are unbeaten this season, I think, in all competitions. So it is a nice challenge, and we should be ready for a big fight.

"I'm really looking forward to it, and I think everyone should. That is the only way to try and get a result over there.

"There is no reason to not being looking forward to it, in my opinion. Another opportunity, but first recover, and then we'll focus on that."