A fixture full of great memories and history. Remember Arshavin's four goal haul in 2009? van Persie's wonder goal in 2012? And most famously of all, Thomas bursting through the midfield. It's up for grabs now...
Unfortunately in recent years this is has not been a happy hunting ground for us. In fact we hadn't won here since September 2012 and had conceded 22 goals on our last five visits.
But this time it felt different somehow. A positive transfer window and a solid start to the season, one of only two clubs to win both our opening matches alongside Liverpool, had taken away the usual feeling of dread this particular trip to the North-West brings. After all a win here would take us to the top.
Now Anfield itself is one of the last truly great stadiums left in this country. The place reeks of history from every pore. Yes it has changed over the years with the impressive new Main Stand for example, but you are immediately aware of all the great moments that have been witnessed in this footballing cathedral down the years.
Unfortunately as an away fan it is not so great. As well as the low roof which obscures the view, especially from the back few rows, they have rammed in far too many seats for the space available so it constantly feels like it is over crowded. Oh the irony...
The concourse area is also far too small for the number of people the stand accommodates inside and the facilities are terrible for a stadium that is so impressive everywhere else. But enough of all that.
They have had a lot of bad press over the years have the Liverpool fans, but I have generally found them to be a very fair and passionate bunch. Certainly the few we spoke to on the walk from the car to the stadium supported this theory and the feeling was they were genuinely worried about the threat we would pose.
Having lost just one of their last 42 matches in all competitions, and that to City, this was always going to be the first real test for Emery's new look side.
The team selection was generally positive; a first start for record signing Pepe in attack, although no Lacazette, a shame as his new song had been sung with great gusto in the concourse before the kick off.
Despite wearing our lovely new blue kit for the first time, the bad vibes started when the teams switched ends for the kick off, meaning we were attacking our end in the first half. For a TV audience this probably means very little, but trust me, not much in life can beat the feeling of an important away goal scored at your end of the ground. And most important goals tend to come in the second half of a match.
As expected Liverpool came at us from the off. We looked very narrow, affording their full backs plenty of time and space to fire crosses into our box. But not to worry, we were defending well and the only chance they had was of our own making; Ceballos passing straight to Mane who's shot was well saved by Leno.
Speaking of the Spaniard, after his impressive first start last week he was brought back down to earth with a bang. Bullied off the ball far too easily by Henderson and Wijnaldum, this was a real lesson for the Real Madrid loanee.
But we should already have been ahead. With Pepe looking dangerous if rather unconventional, and blowing away that ridiculous stat that no one had dribbled past the God-like figure of van Djik, we had the better chances.
Aubamayeng, scorer in our opening two matches, was a whisker away with a 20 yard lob after Adrian's poor clearance, while Pepe then curled an effort narrowly wide. This was promising stuff.
The turning point however, arrived after half an hour. A Liverpool corner was held up for a VAR check about a possible red card for an offence that no one saw, and when we cleared our lines, suddenly Pepe was one-on-one with Adrian.
With the £72m Ivorian baring down on goal, the away section was up ready to celebrate the crucial breakthrough. But at the vital moment Pepe's bottle went and his finish would not have looked out of place on a Sunday League pitch.
Any hope of a positive result ended at that moment. A few minutes later another Liverpool corner saw Matip rise above everyone to power a header past Leno. 1-0. Bugger. And it had all been going so well.
Half time gave us the chance to watch Pepe's miss again on the big screen in the concourse and the more you saw it the worse it got. These are the chances you have to take if you are going to get results in these big games. But at 1-0 we were still in it so I was confident we could still get something.
All that disappeared with in three minutes of the restart. Salah burst into the area and the next thing we know referee Anthony Taylor is pointing to the spot. No VAR, just a penalty. Now usually when a foul is committed in the area there are appeals from the players and the crowd. But not this time. Just a stunned silence.
Social media images of a shirt pull by David Luiz were soon circulating and while that was not in doubt it did not impeded the Egyptians progress. As he has a habit of falling over at the merest of touches, it did seem a very harsh decision, especially when you look at some of the penalties not given this weekend, the ones in the Man. City and Spurs matches in particular.
There was no doubt that Salah would score from the spot and at 2-0 we had a mountain to climb. Of course the best way to do this was to perhaps bring on your best striker and get the ball forward quickly. Maybe try to get Pepe and Aubamayeng back into the match?
But no. Emery sat on his hands, resigned, it appeared, to our fete. We continued to pass it out from the back, inviting pressure and leaving our front men as virtual spectators.
We did manage to create one more chance to get back into it and it showed the value of getting the front two involved. On a rare foray forward Pepe sent Auba clear but our top scorer took an age to decide and Matip was able to get across and block.
As in the first half a big chance missed by us led to Liverpool scoring at the other end. Luiz got turned far too easily by Salah on halfway and the result was inevitable; another neat finish into the far corner. 3-0, game over.
For a while it was looking bad for us. A repeat of the recent spankings was on the cards as we were on the ropes but thankfully Liverpool decided to go easy and retreated a little.
Eventually with ten minutes to go we saw Lacazette preparing to come on, but not before he had been given instructions from the famous tablet. Look, it's quiet simple. You're a striker, we're 3-0 down, try to put yourself about a bit and get a goal. Not sure what more information the tablet could add??
Immediately Laca was pressing high up the pitch and within four minutes we'd scored. The much maligned Xhaka started the move with a ball into the left channel for Auba and it was another sub, Torreira, who finished at the second attempt. Cue a rather muted celebration in the away end but still far more intense than the scenes when Spurs equalised at City the previous week.
It couldn't happen could it? A comeback?? With at least four minutes of stoppage time we basically had 10 minutes to score two more. But instead of showing the urgency of a team who actually felt they could still get something, we continued to play it out from the back and sideways in our own half. It was almost as though 3-1 was a good result...
The final whistle saw a nice moment with Oxlade-Chamberlain, who after a consoling word with Maitland-Niles, came over to applaud the travelling fans, who responded by applauding him back. The Arsenal family.
Maitland-Niles himself, despite having a difficult game, stood in front of the away end long after his teammates had disappeared down the tunnel in a display of defiance sadly lacking from the team for much of the second half.
So another trip to Liverpool ended in disappointment, and with it our hopes of another unbeaten season. If nothing else it showed once again how far away we are from the top sides and that our mentality away from home needs to change.
Emery, whose away record at his previous clubs was not great either, seems to lack the tactical flexibility to change when things are not going to plan, and he seems to put far too much emphasis on the system, the process, instead of the players and the opponents.
For someone who studies the opposition so closely you would image he would have a plan to compete in games like this. But sadly that does not appear to be the case.
Okay so the positives. Firstly the increasing maturity of Joe Willock who was outstanding once again. Also, despite that awful miss, Pepe will be fun to watch. Pace to burn and a bag of tricks, once he gets his confidence in front of goal we will have one hell of a player. Remember it took Henry four months to find his scoring boots.
The trip home was spent in a reflective mood. The reality is we are no more than a side challenging for the top 4. With players to come back from injury we can still improve of course but something nagging away at me keeps saying that we are set for more of the same old, same old.
Hopefully, like my earlier prediction about David Luiz being new new van Djik, I will be proved wrong...
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