Liverpool To Ring The Changes – But What About Arsenal?
Apr 4th, 2008 by 'holic
Saturday lunchtime games rarely see the best of Arsenal produced. Frankly in this one the quality of the performance can take a back seat. Three points is everything, and if the Liverpool Daily Post is to be believed then Rafa Benitez will help us out by fielding a much-weakened side.
Benitez tries his hand at a little kidology when he says “I am expecting to make changes, I cannot expect them to play three times like that in seven days, certainly with the very high tempo of the games.” He knows full well that is something that Arsene Wenger will almost certainly ask of his side.
Such rotation by the visitors was widely predicted at the time of the draw for the Champions League quarter-final. Now we are about to find out if Arsene believes the Premier League is still a realistic target.
The signs from the lunchtime press briefings are that he will start with a strong side. There is a coded message when he talks of being unsure if Emmanuel Adebayor “will be able to last 90 minutes”. At some stage he is faced with a decision about possibly replacing three key players with one eye on Tuesday.
The ‘holic pound is being placed on an Arsenal triumph. Benitez is sending out a pre-match message that this game is expendable, and sub-consciously his players could take that on-board. 2-1 looks interesting. I can imagine us getting that clear advantage, then having a nervy finish when the substitutions have been made.
If you are at the game I hope you have a great time, and we get the result for you. If, like me, you will be suffering the Sky broadcast with only a few Guinni for comfort then I hope we get the result we’re praying for. Once our three points are secure I will head for the local, and hope to see Chelsea struggle at the City of Manchester Stadium. I’ll be back there on Sunday. Middlesbrough made life decidedly uncomfortable for us this season, and now it’s time for Southgate’s boys to repay us by taking points off United.
Yes, I know, but they just might. Have faith!
13 Responses to “Liverpool To Ring The Changes – But What About Arsenal?”
Long time no first drink
A-ha. The early bird catches the worm!
Setanta???? its on Sky you fool!
By the way im a liverpool fan, not really excited about this weekends game as i usually am when these two collide as i think Tuesday night will just be a belter
I didnt expect anything from the first game and we got a 1-1, i dont expect anything less than a 2-0 or 3-1 whooping in tomorrows game.
You play really nice passy pass and move football, the old type of football liverpool USED to play.
For your sakes i think we will put out a weaker side – voronin and crouch, pennant, alonso, maybe even itandge might get a game!
youll get 3 points, derby will beat everton so we keep the 5 point gap on them (it always happens that when ateam gets relegated they win their next game).
Then bring on you guys again on Tuesday..
Im not sure if you can afford to rest stars such as Adebayor, Hleb and Fabregs, even Almunia.
Id rather you win the league than Man U, thats all, the more they stay on 16 league titles the better because it hink we are still 2 or 3 years away from getting close to you
wenger must be in a difficult position, he has to make some changes. he can not sustain this level of play with the same players for 2 more games against liverpool then play untied. good luck to the gunners!
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Setanta, where did I say that?
Heh!. Thanks karim. There is no fool like an old fool. I usually watch the Scottish game on Setanta if I am home on a Saturday lunchtime, so that is what stuck in my mind.
Good job I have Sky too.
😉
A scouser writes…..
Just a quick note to say I enjoy the articles and tone of the debate. Better than the nasty hate fest you get from most football sites.
Good luck in the premiership this year but I think your season may be almost over. You need to spend big to compete with Chelsea and MUFC – you have the best manager and attitude.
That KT gets around a bit. Still she is a nice lass
Thank you Michael, fair comments there. I don’t, however, agree we need to spend big. Just look at how close we are coming this season. I will accept we need a bit of turnover in the summer though, which should involve a couple of departures as well as one or two being signed. Now those one or two this summer may cost a bit more than we are used to spending, because the money is there, but I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s more important we get players who will complement what we have and maintain a good spirit in the squad than sign big-name Charlies with big egos to match.
It’s all about Diego and Jonathan de Guzman holic.
I agree totally about the tone of this debate, it’s a refreshing change! But from my experience scouse fans tend to be the fairest and most reasonable out of all the top-four fans, even better than us gooners!! haha… I still hope we thrash you and kuyt gets sent off on Tuesday though… I’ve never liked him, he’s such a second-rate player!
We definitely need to buy a few players in the summer, mostly squad players to offer some depth because going into these next three games the squad is looking VERY thin. Some proper wingers would be lovely!! A replacement for Pires, maybe… I miss that man…
I don’t think we lack wingers. We lack finishers: Pires was a winger but he was an excellent finisher. Ljungberg was a winger and he was also a good finisher. In the current squad we have more than enough passers and creators. we need a few who can take those passes and stick them into opposition’s goal.
We need someone who has the audacity to score a goal out of the slimmest of opening. Seeing Wlacott’s shot from the left on Wednesday night gives me hope.
Theo Walcott in the next few years will be one of the best strikers in Europe. Huge words I know. But I believe he has it in him….
we lack wingers who can finish!
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