Mikel Arteta is hoping he avoids another touchline tussle with Jurgen Klopp as he prepares to take his Arsenal side to Liverpool on Sunday.
Arteta and Klopp clashed during the Premier League game on Merseyside last season after Sadio Mane and Takehiro Tomiyasu collided competing for a ball in the air.
Arteta reacted angrily to the challenge, believing Mane had caught Tomiyasu with an elbow, and he remonstrated with his opposite number on the touchline.
The game was goalless at that point, but the incident whipped up the Anfield crowd and Liverpool went on to win 4-0.
Asked if he would approach such a scenario differently this time, Arteta said: “I don’t know. I would have to be in the situation again.
“I reacted to defend our players the best possible way - but I don’t like seeing myself like this, so hopefully not.
“That’s football. It happens in football and after that we hugged each other and moved on. The last time we were together nothing happened. I have full respect and admiration for what they’ve done. We’ve moved on.”
Arsenal have a miserable record at Anfield and have not won a League game there since 2012, with Arteta starting in midfield that day.
In seven away games against Liverpool in the League since Klopp was appointed eight years ago, Arsenal have lost by an aggregate score of 25-7 to the home side, and Arteta has called for cool heads.
“They know that. They experience that,” he said. “We know what we have to do.
“We’ve played in the toughest places. We went to White Hart Lane and did what the team did, the atmosphere doesn’t get much tougher than that.”
