 It’s still a good time to play Liverpool, they think they’re playing well again
They’ll fancy themselves and might come at us but they’re still without Torres
A few weeks ago a home match against Liverpool seemed like a good chance for three points for Arsenal, because Liverpool are ordinary without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and Arsenal were top of the Premier League. A few weeks later, Liverpool have won several matches, Arsenal have been whupped by United and Chelsea and we look barely capable of scoring a goal. It doesn’t sound like a great recipe for three points but there are some red herrings involved.
Many Arsenal fans had hoped that we’d approach this game set to take at least eight points from the 12 on offer from our run of four tough matches. Instead we drew against Villa before losing to the other two and the best we can get now is four points from 12. Shabby. We look bereft of confidence, belief and ideas, while Liverpool have won matches, kept clean sheets and have just won a Merseyside derby. So is this now a bad time to host Liverpool? No. It’s still a good time. We need to play them while Torres is still out, what they do after that with the rest of their matches is their business. Gerrard is back in Liverpool’s team and we all know that he can drag Liverpool to any result they need. He can comfortably scupper a narrow Arsenal win with an astute shot or assist. We also know that he likes to win free-kicks near opposition penalty areas by bumping into opponents when in range and expecting a free-kick. If you don’t know what I meant when I blogged about 'bumping', watch Gerrard when he gets near our penalty area. If we had a brain in defence our players would be tutored not to give him these freebies, but I think we know the likelihood of that. It doesn’t seem like much of a help to Arsenal that we’re in anti-form while Liverpool are gathering a little steam, but it could work in our favour. If Liverpool were still without Gerrard as well as Torres they may have come to defend and do little else, which we always find hard to break down. Now that he’s back and they’re getting some results they fancy their chances to finish at least fourth and, crucially, they will now fancy their chances of getting a result at our place. But without Torres Liverpool are heavily impotent. You cannot ignore Gerrard or Kuyt, as either are viable goalscorers, they don’t have nothing about them, but Liverpool without Torres are a much less dangerous animal. We lose van Persie and we still keep a title challenge going. Liverpool lose Torres and they are bereft. If United lost Rooney for three months tomorrow they would be screwed and Chelsea would sure struggle without Drogba. While Arsenal are not better than United and Chelsea there is no law that they could not drop points in the run-in while we gather up our senses, win some winnable games and put ourselves back in the frame. We don’t have to deserve to win the title to do it, we don’t have to be better than United or Chelsea either – we just need one more point than them. Let Liverpool fancy their chances, that will make them come at us for a result far more than they were planning to and that will play into our hands, giving us more space to play our game. That might be just what we need to remind us that we are still a highly capable side ourselves. I fear Gerrard inspiring Liverpool to a 1-1 draw. I also fear that other wounded animal, Ryan Babel: he’s been appallingly mismanaged by Liverpool. He should have been given a DVD of John Barnes from 1987/88 and told “there you go, that’s your benchmark, go out and do that”, because he could do it if they’d let him. If Liverpool fancy their chances and come at us for a win, we surely still have enough mental energy to take advantage of the space that would afford us and at least shade a 1-0/2-1 victory. By the way, you can now follow me on Twitter, at http://twitter.com/thatsimonrose.
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Posted 9th Feb 2010
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