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LIVERPOOL -- Simon Mignolet has been dropped in favour of Loris Karius for Liverpool's game with Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, while Alexis Sanchez returns to the Gunners' starting XI. Mignolet began the season as Liverpool's first-choice goalkeeper and had started all four matches so far. However, the Belgian has lost his place for the meeting with the Gunners and will not be part of the matchday squad on Sunday, with Danny Ward taking a place on the substitutes' bench as Liverpool's back-up goalkeeper. Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger has made a number of changes to the Arsenal side that lost against Stoke last weekend, dropping summer signings Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac to the bench and bringing Sanchez back into the team. Laurent Koscielny also returns to the starting line-up, in place of Shkodran Mustafi who has been linked with a transfer away from the club. Karius will start his first Premier League match for Liverpool since December 2016 after he was dropped by Klopp following a number of high-profile errors last season. The Liverpool manager held a three-way battle for the No. 1 jersey in preseason as Mignolet beat off competition from Karius and Ward to maintain his place in the starting XI. Klopp told Liverpool's official website of his decision: "[It is] to rest him, that's all. Four games in a very short term, for a goalkeeper especially. "He didn't want to rest, it's not a problem. We spoke yesterday about it and I really thought it made sense, especially because we have the quality in behind. "It is just because I want to let him have a rest after this really intense time with really good performances for us. "But with the other boys, we wanted a situation like this; we wanted to have three strong goalkeepers. They've shown up in training, they are really ambitious, they want to have game time, they want to have games, so today Loris is starting." Liverpool starting XI: Karius, Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Moreno, Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum, Mane, Salah, Firmino. Liverpool subs: Ward, Klavan, Alexander-Arnold, Grujic, Milner, Solanke, Sturridge. Arsenal starting XI: Cech; Holding, Koscielny, Monreal; Bellerin, Ramsey, Xhaka, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Ozil, Sanchez, Welbeck. Arsenal subs: Ospina, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Coquelin, Walcott, Lacazette, Giroud.
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