The Gooners went on to draw against what has become, a rather average Manchester United side, and then, Wenger found himself embroiled in yet another war of words with his Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho who labelled him a "specialist in failure" following another round of mind games initiated by the Alsacian's statement that Chelsea had "...the Premiership title to lose...". Arsenal and indeed Wenger himself will also find it hard to put to one side, the thought that after tomorrow's visit by Liverpool, they travel to Bavaria on Wednesday for their Champions League first leg knockout phase match against Bayern Munich who incidentally, currently lay a healthy 13 points clear atop the German Bundesliga.
I can't help but feel that all of this plays into Liverpool's hands. One can't deny that Arsenal are in a turbulent period right now. Could this be the start of another infamous implosion brought about by the pressure of looking down at the rest of the Premiership? I don't believe there is as much pressure on Rodgers' charges as there is on Wenger's right now. I wouldn't even consider Liverpool to be favorites for today's match. I'm surprised that someone of Wenger's experience has managed to get himself and his team into this current predicament. Perhaps he's had a chat with an old friend of his, one Sir Alex Ferguson? Rodgers has done well to distance himself from the whole mind games fiasco and this will be of benefit to his team. The less distractions the better, and Wenger has a fair few right now. Mostly of his own making.
For Liverpool to win, they need to take a different approach to last week. Wenger will be looking to "put things right with Liverpool" as he stated Friday and I think this leaves them only one option, and that's to attack and press the Reds as hard as they can from the off. Liverpool have shown against Everton that they are more than capable of playing a lethal counter attacking game and should be able to cope. That is, if Daniel Agger starts in place of Kolo Touré who's had a woeful time of late.
The return of Agger to the heart of the defence will bring the much-needed stability and organization that's been missing during his absence. This is a certainty. In the seven games since Agger's injury, Liverpool have shipped nine goals and failed to keep a clean sheet since the 2-0 win against Bournmouth. This compares to conceding six in the last seven games where Agger was involved and the team kept three clean sheets. Bare in mind that four of those goals were against Manchester City and Chelsea, and you can see the difference he makes to the side. This is no coincidence and I don't think Rodgers needs to be reminded of this either. Perhaps he does need reminding that he should concentrate on bolstering the defense during the next transfer window.
Other than that, I don't see any other changes to the Liverpool side. This game will be as much a mental test for both sides as it will be a physical one. Particularly for Arsenal. Their heads dropped massively against Liverpool last week and they appeared short on confidence against Man Utd during the week. If Liverpool can keep them in check for the first 20 minutes of each half, I don't see Arsenal having the mental resilience to wear the visitors down and, should they succeed to fail - to use a Mourinhoism - then one could even argue that they lost today's game already a week ago.
We'll know everything by 6pm tonight. Will Brendan's men get rodgered, or will the Gooners be goners? I don't expect a high scoring game but then... Stranger things have happened.
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