Nuno Tavares sends warning to Mohamed Salah and Arsenal’s title challengers

Tavares joined Arsenal from Portuguese giants Benfica in the summer to provide cover for first choice left-back Kieran Tierney.

However, the 21-year-old Portugal youth international has shone in the absence of Tierney during the Gunners’ last three Premier League matches against Aston Villa, Leicester City, while also being preferred to the Scotland international against Watford last time out.

Should Tavares be given the nod to start at Anfield, he will likely be in direct competition with Salah – the league’s top scorer with 10 goals in his opening 11 matches.

But the Arsenal youngster is far from phased by the challenge, believing that the Egypt international may not even know who he is.

‘Salah, if I play, will play against me. I don’t have a problem with anyone. I play for Arsenal. We have a good team and Liverpool have a good team as well to fight on the pitch,’ he told TalkSPORT.

When asked whether Salah will have a problem with him, he said: ‘I don’t think so. Salah won’t know who I am.’

Arsenal currently sit in fifth place in the league table and just two points behind Jurgen Klopp’s side after going 10-matches unbeaten in all competitions in a run that stretches from August.

And Tavares believes that the north London club shouldn’t be overlooked as a serious contender to win the title this term.

‘This game is big for us. We go to Anfield to try to win the game. That’s it. Why top three and not top one? I told you we are Arsenal, so we want to win the league. For us it is top one,’ he added.

‘In the beginning we didn’t do well [three Premier League defeats in a row], at the beginning of the season. But now we are good and people need to understand we are Arsenal. We need to win games to achieve our objective.

‘I don’t know why people are so shocked about Arsenal. We are a big club and have good players. I don’t know why people are surprised about that. For us it is normal and simple to win games.

‘We are in top five, for us we want to achieve top one. I don’t know why people are surprised with that.’

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