Arsenal are planning to give Liverpool a guard of honour at Anfield this weekend, despite the Premier League rules not actually requiring the gesture.
Mike Keegan reports for the Daily Mail that Arsenal are expected to follow Chelsea’s lead and give Liverpool a guard of honour at Anfield this weekend.
The Premier League rules don’t say anything about the gesture, so it’s completely up to Arsenal to make the decision for themselves. If they wished to, they could simply refuse.
But the Gunners reportedly believe that the measure is a mark of sportsmanship, so they don’t plan to break with the tradition.
Just last weekend, Rangers refused to give Celtic a guard of honour ahead of their 1-1 draw. But the Scottish Premiership is a different competition, and there’s obviously a lot more history and bitterness between Rangers and Celtic compared to Liverpool and Arsenal.
Arsenal would presumably hope that if they win the league, their title rivals would give them a guard of honour too.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if Tottenham Hotspur were asked to do so, but for anyone else it would probably be more embarrassing not to. The club in question would come across like petty sore losers.
Arsenal will just have to bite the bullet, like Chelsea already have, and like Brighton and Crystal Palace will in the coming weeks.