While Arsène Wenger has spent much of his time since Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea discussing the finer points of the game with Michael Ballack, his managerial opponent tonight could have done a lot worse than study both the clash at Stamford Bridge and Manchester United’s win at the Emirates a week previously.
Better blueprints on how to beat the Gunners Rafael Benitez couldn’t have wished to find, but Wenger can at least take solace from his good home record against Liverpool – it is nearly 10 years to the day since the Reds earned a win at Arsenal – and he’ll be confident that his side’s superior quality in the final third will prove decisive.
If this sounds like a contradiction then it’s meant to, for there are more questions than answers about the two clubs who will line up against each other at the Emirates tonight.
Where is Arsenal’s cutting edge? Have Liverpool turned a corner? Why didn’t Wenger buy a striker? Will Benitez walk away? Can Arsenal get back in the title race? Can Liverpool stay in the top four? In whose hands will these two great institutions of the English game end up in next?
For tonight, all of that has to be put to one side. There should be no talk of American or Indian billionaires in North London, simply of a need to win what has become one of the more important fixtures of both club’s seasons.
Arsenal are a wounded animal. Having been put in their place by both Manchester United and Chelsea over the past 10 days, they’ll look upon tonight as a chance to reassert themselves as a Premier League force. Their quality has never been in doubt, but after having their deficiencies exposed so publicly in the their last two matches, a victory now seems imperative to restore some confidence and pride in a season that once again has promised so much, but once again looks like delivering so little. It won’t be easy tonight though.
Benitez and Liverpool wiped the slate clean after last month’s FA Cup humbling at the hands of Reading. They went back to basics, starting with a league game at Stoke in the immediate days following the cup shock. Due to injuries, the manager was forced to name the most shadowy of shadow sides at the Britannia Stadium, but the amount of effort and workrate put in set the precedent for virtually every game since. Robert Huth’s cruel late equaliser was the last goal they’ve conceded.
That endeavour hasn’t always been allied to the best football, but has proved vital in the circumstances. Merseyside derbies are never the prettiest, but when you play an hour of one with 10 men and still win, as Liverpool did over Everton on Saturday, then your confidence will have received an enormous boost. Liverpool fear no-one.
Fear of failure could come into it tonight though, for both teams. Arsenal lose, and Liverpool are just two points behind them. Suddenly Champions League qualification isn’t assured, suddenly Cesc Fàbregas is eyeing the Heathrow departure lounge marked “Barcelona”. Suddenly the season is falling away.
Defeat for Liverpool, and they are eight points behind the Gunners. Suddenly they are back behind Tottenham, feeling the hot breath of Manchester City on their backs. Suddenly the old doubts will emerge, suddenly that defiance has gone.
Either way, both teams face a tough fight to get back to the level they occupied previously. A win for either won’t solve all of their problems, they are far too many and too complicated for a mere three points to make them go away, but they will help.
As both clubs search for a new direction off the pitch, what happens on it tonight provides the most intriguing of distractions.
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