Arsenal welcome Liverpool to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night with neither side having much margin for error if they are to fulfil their remaining goals this season.
Arsenal's North London derby defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday saw them slip to ninth in the Premier League table, with four points now separating them from a Europa League qualifying spot heading into the final three games of the campaign.
Liverpool, meanwhile, were held to a 1-1 draw by Burnley at Anfield on Saturday and now must win all three of their remaining games if they are to break the all-time record for most points in an English top-flight season.
Here, Sports Mole selects its strongest combined XI from the two squads, using only players available for Wednesday's match.
Given that a whopping 43 points separate these two sides in the table, it is no surprise that Liverpool dominate this combined XI, and the vast majority of selections were straightforward.
Alisson Becker would be an easy pick even if Arsenal had Bernd Leno available and, while Emiliano Martinez has impressed while filling in for the Gunners' injured first choice, there is no real competition between him and the Liverpool shot-stopper.
The same is true across the back four, where Arsenal have been even more error-prone than usual this season. Centre-backs David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are some way short of rivalling Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk for a place in the team.
It is more of the same at full-back too, where Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold have developed into two of the best players in their respective positions in world football, yet alone the Premier League. Kieran Tierney deserves a mention, but once more there was little doubt about it being a Liverpool double-header at full-back.
Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos have both become key parts of Mikel Arteta's side at Arsenal, but they too must play a distant second fiddle to Fabinho and Georginio Wijnaldum, while Jordan Henderson would have also made the cut had he been fit.
It is impossible to leave the Liverpool front three out too; Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have spearheaded their charge to the title and both remain among the Golden Boot contenders, while Roberto Firmino continues to knit it all together despite his overall goal tally being somewhat underwhelming.
Arsenal's Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette provide the Gunners with plenty of firepower too and all deserve mentions, but the only player to make the cut from Wednesday's hosts is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The Gabon international is the only Arsenal player who could lay a claim to being in the world-class category, and he is also in the running to retain the Golden Boot, which he shared with Mane and Salah last season.
Barney Corkhill
