Arsenal vs Liverpool: Stakes Running High

On the eve of Arsenal’s home match against Liverpool, emotion is running high in the Arsenal camp. At least it is for this supporter, and I can only imagine that the players feel are even more so. Winning this match will place us in third, recover any lost hope of competing for the title, and improve everyone’s over-all outlook for the rest of the season.

With Rosicky injured for the next 10 days, we’ll be playing a side and formation that is fairly untested against the Reds. I suspect we’ll see a more traditional 4-4-2 than the hazy 4-5-1 that we have been getting used to. When it gets down to it though, ultimately the formation won’t matter. What will matter is if movement is good, passes are accurate, and chances are created and capitalized upon.

The key to this match is going to be in controlling play in the midfield. We’ve got a young offensive minded play-maker in Cesc, and a stalwart defensive controller in Gilberto. With our current injury situation we’ll likely see Walcott, Hleb, or Flamini along the flanks. In this setup, I think Liverpool are a team that we could potentially get the upper hand on in the midfield.

They are likely to try to play our kind of football, without as much strength and pressure as some of the other premiership teams. If we can control the movement on and off the ball in the midfield, and we can keep an ample supply of balls into Van Persie and Henry, it will be in the strikers’ hands to finish the game off.
Our defensive line has seen some momentary lapses in the last month. If we’re going to win this game, the back four will have to make sure that there are no lapses at all. I’m hoping that Kolo Toure’s recent impressive form will help egg on the rest of the defenders. He’s been a manic juggernaut for us in the back line acting as a defensive authority with his precise tackling. He’s managed to cover for the team regardless of the situation and he has truly been consistent.

Speaking of consistency… that is the one thing that we have lacked this year, despite our impressive form. With a young team like this it just won’t been a guarantee that the players will play consistently. It’s to be expected though. With plenty of game time and age comes professionalism and consistency that every team needs, we just don’t have a whole lot of it right now. I’m interested to see what Arsene will do to counter-act this because if it continues like this surely something must change.

With Sissoko injured, Liverpool will be playing a bit of a make-shift midfield. However, I think this will mean that Gerrard will be in the center, which is a bad thing for us. Gerrard is dominant player who is both creative and strong on the ball. Lehmann will hopefully be keeping his eye out for any of Gerrard’s cannon attempts on goal. We certainly don’t want to see any of Stevie’s massive shot’s from outside the box in this match.

Liverpool have just as many reasons to win this match as we do, so they won’t be willing to give this one away without a fight. With chants from the home crowd behind us, hopefully the home side can put this one in the record books as a turning point.

I’m not quite as excited for the match tomorrow as I was for the Manchester away game (which is a difficult thing to say, because I’m going to have a hard time sleeping before this match), because at that point in the season things were truly looking abysmal. We’ve seen a flash of greatness in the side since that match, so now the team just needs to deliver it regularly. That being said, I can’t wait for the kick-off whistle to blow.

I think that we’ve got a good chance of winning this match and setting a tone for the rest of the season. I’ll be waking up at 7:45 a.m. to catch the game in my living room. It’s a bit too early for the pub. A fellow Arsenal supporter, who is new as of this season, will be joining me in the post and pre-match festivities. Hopefully we’ll be waking up the neighbors with some goal celebrations! I’ll be writing up a report shortly after the match so stay tuned.