Arsenal has failed to win two of their last Premier League matches which has made them drop to the fourth position in the Premier League table this season. Liverpool is topping Aston Villa with a point difference but Liverpool has an outstanding game. If Liverpool wins the outstanding game they will top with 3 points difference over Aston Villa. Liverpool might find it difficult to win matches because they will be without Salah who will be going for the African Cup Nation.
Newcastle United is a pretty tough opponent for Liverpool, but that doesn't mean Liverpool isn't tough enough when competing at home in today's match. Because even without Salah, Liverpool still has to be considered as a strong team this season because so far Liverpool's strength is still visible, so it is not worth underestimating Liverpool just because one of their mainstay players is going to the Africa Cup of Nations. Today's match for Liverpool will probably be much more interesting because Liverpool really need to distance themselves from Aston Villa who are currently starting to continue to show their fangs and skills in every match.
But on the other hand I don't think that way, I would say Newcastle is quite an opponent for Liverpool if Newxastle is in pretty good form like last season, but now it's clearly different, they have problems with their depth so they have a mid-season slump which certainly makes them fall further in the table as a result of their declining performance. We can see in the last two matches they did not win at all even though they were faced with teams far below them, namely Luton Town and N.Forest, while on the other hand Liverpool are now at the top of the standings of their good performance in passing through several matches they have passed.
In addition, this match will be held at Liverpool's home and obviously it will increase the possibility of a greater chance of winning three points and maybe our doubts arise only because of the absence of Liverpool's main players in this match, but I think Klopp has thought about this and is looking for a formula to overcome it, because obviously as you said that they must be able to stay away from Aston Villa's pursuit so however this is an important match for them, I am quite optimistic.