Liverpool Might Trounce The Gunners With 'SAS'

Following completion of the first round of matches on August 17^th, many experts and pundits alike, wrote off Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal with some even concluding that the Gunners would break Wenger’s record of having finished in the top four ever since he arrived from Japan. How wrong they have been proven to be with the North London outfit now seated top of the Barclays Premier League with 9 games having been played. Or were they right?

                               

            Just under a week and a half ago, defeat to Champions League finalists, Borrusia Dortmund, sort of brought the Arsenal fans, more than anyone else, back down to the grass of Emirates’ pitch, after preconceived ideas of lifting the league title come May. Chelsea’s swashbuckling performance coupled with two goals in the Capital One cup further served as a reality check with the Arsenal squad now being stretched quite a bit. With high-flying Liverpool the visitors tonight, Wenger’s troops have it all to do if they are to stop an unwanted record of 3 successive home defeats for the first time ever at the Emirates.

            Flamini, Walcott, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain among others, will are all still out with injury (though the German striker recently returned to training) along with a speedy winger in Serge Gnabry, who has more than made a case for a starting place in Arsene’s first 11. News just in that Jack Wilshere has been rendered unfit to start the game tonight, which further complicates matters. A squad which was stretched earlier, is now down to its bare bones.

            Liverpool are undoubtedly the toughest test in the league thus far, among all teams who have played against Arsenal. Boasting the deadliest duo in England thus far with a combined 14 goals between the pair, ‘SAS’ as they’re fondly nicknamed, are brimming with confidence, playing with the panache last seen from the likes of Torres, Owen and Rush.

            One may construe that team supremo Brendan Rodgers has come up with a tactical masterclass may not be too far off, as he has altered his team’s outlook from the now common 4-3-3 to a more flexible 3-5-2 formation, enabling Suarez and Sturridge to play in their favoured positions, but still having control in the middle of the park, with Gerard and Lucas shielding the Merseysiders centre backs with Henderson in front of them, (though Coutinho will definitely be ahead of that diamond when he returns). The game changer is that this permits both Johnson and Cissokho to get forward to provide width for the attack. Teams who play narrow against such an outfit will find it tough as Liverpool will smother the midfield. Key to counter this sort of system is to have pacy wingers who can stretch the game, dragging centre backs into unwanted territory out of their box.

However, with the threesome of Walcott, Chamberlain and Podolski out, Arsenal are powerless to go out wide, with both Cazorla and Rosicky preferring to drift infield. Brendan Rodgers will be silently chuckling with joy, defending against such a system.

            And almost everyone knows that Arsene Wenger is such a stubborn man that he would not change his tactics to counter a losing situation.

            Centre halves like Skrtel, Sakho and Toure will be loaded with confidence in their veins, tasked to defend against a static forward in the shape of Olivier Giroud because they know he doesn’t possess the pace to get in behind them.

            Wenger has his work cut out here. He’ll have to get into his players, stressing on the importance of this game because winning it not only maintains their stay at the top, but it widens the gap between them and the red half of Merseyside and also provides much-needed morale going into a do-or-die tie against Dortmund in midweek.

            Ramsey will be needed to cover every blade of grass at the Emirates, with enough pizzazz from Ozil, Cazorla and Rosicky while Arteta has to take some advice from Flamini on how to bite at the heels of nifty forwards like Suarez.

            Arsenal’s fullbacks, both have a mammoth of a job tonight, not only in defence but in the attacking third of the pitch as well. They might have to revisit the tape of that match against Dortmund, where the Germans provided a scintillating show of counterattacking football at its best.

If they do all of these, then maybe, just maybe, the Gunners will have a chance against the inform-duo in the Barclays Premier League.

            With that being said, I personally think there are too many “if’s” and “maybe’s” for Arsenal to win. The Reds have been going great and Suarez will want to teach the Gunners a lesson for not upping their ludicrous 40 million plus one pound bid. Prediction, a 3-1 win to Liverpool.