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LONDON. — English Premier League football leaders Arsenal face a real test of their credentials against Liverpool tomorrow but they still have plenty of room for improvement, manager Mikel Arteta said yesterday.

The Gunners have won seven out of eight games so far and go into the weekend a point clear of champions Manchester City, who host Southampton today.

Liverpool, champions in 2019-20 and runners-up last season, are ninth with only two wins from seven matches ahead of the game at the Emirates Stadium. They won 2-0 there last time around in March.

“It is a really exciting game to play against one of the top opponents in this league,” Arteta told reporters. “It’s going to be a really demanding match that’s going to require us to be at our best again. “It’s a fixture that everybody is looking for against an opponent that has shown in the last five or six years the level they have and we have to show that we have raised the level and are ready to compete against them.” Arsenal are unbeaten at home in the league, their sole defeat coming at Manchester United last month, and Arteta said he was proud of the change in atmosphere at the North London club. “How you measure success is lifting trophies, but as well you have to understand where we were and how fractured the club and the environment looked,” he said.

“I am very conscious that we can get much better than what we are today… we have to do better to be the team that we want to be and the challenge now is to do it every three days.

“You always see the weaknesses that you want to improve.”

And Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, on the other hand, has urged his side to ‘’defend the s*** out of everybody’’ when they face Arsenal tomorrow afternoon.

The Reds will be hoping to get back to winning ways, following their 3-3 draw with Brighton last weekend, when they face English Premier League leaders Arsenal at the Emirates.

And the German has sent out a rallying cry in his pre-match press conference, as he insisted his team must have all hands on deck to keep out the rampant hosts.

Speaking yesterday, Klopp said: ‘’We need consistency. For consistency, we have to defend the… rubbish, out of everybody. Let me say it like this. I’m not interested in this short-term diagnosis, ‘that was good, that was bad’. No, we have to be good until we are outstanding.’’

English Premiership Fixtures

Today: Bournemouth v Leicester City (4pm); Chelsea v Wolverhampton Wanderers (4pm); Newcastle v Brentford (4pm); Manchester City v Southampton (4pm); Brighton v Tottenham Hotspur (6:30pm).

Tomorrow: Crystal Palace v Leeds (3pm); West Ham v Fulham (3pm); Arsenal v Liverpool (5:30pm); Everton v Manchester United (8pm).

Monday: Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa (9pm). —  AFP.