Arsenal have been urged to avoid giving Premier League champions Liverpool a guard of honour when they clash at Anfield later this month.
Liverpool have comfortably been the best team in the Premier League this season and they have clinched the title with four games of the 2024/25 campaign remaining.
Injuries and a decline in form have prevented Arsenal from mounting a sustained challenge for the title, so they are set to finish second in the Premier League for a third consecutive season.
All of Arsenal’s focus is on the Champions League, so Mikel Arteta‘s side have very little to play for when they face Liverpool at Anfield on May 11.
Arsenal will give Liverpool a guard of honour before this match, but former Premier League striker Troy Deeney has explained why he thinks this “tradition” is a “load of old b*llocks”.
“Chelsea will give Liverpool a ‘guard of honour’ before tomorrow’s Premier League match at Stamford Bridge. And next weekend, presumably, Arsenal will do the same,” Deeney told The Sun.
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“But like so many other things in modern football, it’s something I will never understand.
“Frankly, I think it’s a load of old b*llocks. It’s not so much a mark of respect as a humiliation for the team lining up to give the champions a little clap.
“It is as if Chelsea and Arsenal and everyone who plays the champs for the rest of the season, is saying, ‘Well done, we’re perfectly happy you beat us’.”
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Before the Arsenal game, Liverpool face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this weekend. Ahead of this match, Blues boss Enzo Maresca has confirmed that they will give Arne Slot’s team a guard of honour.
“I think it’s a tradition, it’s something you have to do, and we’re going to do,” Maresca said.
“First of all, they won the league, so they deserve that, and hopefully we can be there [as champions] very soon.”
On winning the title, Slot explained why he thinks this could boost Liverpool’s transfer prospects.
“To experience this once is really nice. But we would love to experience it one more time,” Slot said.
“It has been special for all the fans and it’s definitely been special for the players and for us as well. Now we know why, when we start next season, what we do it for.
“But it definitely helps to attract new players as well because mostly the players that we want, we are not the only club who thinks they are good players, so they have more options.
“Then maybe it helps for them to see that the way we do things here is special. Until now, if I spoke to players who we wanted to bring in, I always told them that our fans are really special and it is special to play at this club.
“But after Sunday I don’t think I ever have to tell anyone again how special our fans are because that was unbelievable.”
