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I should be gutted that Liverpool are still in the League Cup.

Jurgen Klopp ’s hard work is bearing fruit this season, and they look like the team to beat for the league title and to avoid in the cups.

My own Arsenal have a great first XI but still lack the strength in depth for a sustained title challenge to my eyes, so the domestic cups are our best bet for a trophy this year.

So why am I so happy that ­Liverpool are in the quarter-finals with us? Because the team they beat to get there was none other than Tottenham Hotspur, our hated local rivals.

As Robin van Persie said before he sold out and moved to Manchester United, it feels great to beat Spurs, and “it even feels good when we don’t play them and they get beaten”.

(Image: Getty)

Nothing will beat coming from two goals down to hammer them 5-2 a few years back, but watching them ship five to a relegated Newcastle side was pretty special too. It’s not just Arsenal fans who feel this way.

Whether it’s City against United, Birmingham against Villa, we love to see our derby rivals lose (although watching Villa lose must be starting to lose its novelty value these days).

Labour activists have a derby rival too: they’re called the Liberal Democrats .

There’s an old joke in Labour circles – who do you kick off a cliff first, the Tory or the Liberal Democrat? To which the answer is the Liberal Democrat, of course, ­business before pleasure.

Her Majesty’s Opposition likes nothing better than getting one over the Lib Dems, who, back when Charlie Kennedy was in charge, had the temerity to challenge their claim to be Britain’s major party of the left.

(Image: PA)

But Labour’s noisy neighbours had to pipe down after going into coalition with the Tories.

They spent five years losing, and Labour cheered every time. It felt great to watch them lose – even when it was to UKIP or the Tories, but especially to Labour.

Then the election came around, and it didn’t feel so good to watch them lose any more.

The Lib Dems lost their seats, and the winners were the Tories , who picked up most of them.

It was one thing to see brilliant Labour MPs like Jess Phillips take seats – but another to see Conservative MPs back in Cheadle and Hazel Grove for the first time in decades.

Those were the seats that gave the Conservatives their majority, and with it, helped embolden George Osborne into trying to cut tax credits, and saw Britain crash out of Europe.

(Image: Rupert Hartley/Bloomberg)

Neither would have happened if the Lib Dems were still a serious force in British politics.

Love them or hate them, they’re the only party that compete with the Tories in the poshest parts of Britain.

Even Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest fans know in their hearts that Labour has no hope of winning over the voters in places like Berwick-upon-Tweed or Harrogate. You need the Lib ­Dems for that.

And with Scotland looking increasingly like a lost country for Labour, they are going to need all the hope they can get if they’re going to get the Tories out.

But the Lib Dems are on their way back. They gave the Tories a fright in David Cameron’s old stomping ground of Witney, coming from fourth place to get within 5,000 votes of taking the seat.

Now they can go one better by taking Richmond Park in December. We’ll be worse off if they don’t.