Liverpool Preview I: Just Don’t Concede 1 April, 2008

This is part one of a trilogy of Liverpool Previews and this is where it all begins. 3 games against Liverpool and then a decisive game against Man United, these games will decide our season. It’s a massive game for both teams and it’s bound to be a bit of a nervous game. Arsenal and Liverpool both have a lot to play for tomorrow night and it being the first leg, I have a feeling that we’re going to be a bit cautious.

By the way when I say we, I mean us and them. I don’t think it’s that we’re going to be nervous, we’ve been in good games like this before and you’d hope that our professionals don’t let nerves ruin their game. I just feel that with it being the 1st leg, both teams won’t want to make a mistake and perhaps they wouldn’t be as adventurous as they would be in the 2nd leg if they needed a goal.

So it could be a bit of a stalemate tomorrow night. A 0-0 would suit us, a 1-1 would suit Liverpool. At this stage I think our aim has to be to not concede. If it’s a score draw tomorrow night I’m not going to be very comfortable going into the second leg. They are going to come to Ashburton Grove wanting to score an away goal. They’re going to have to be careful at the same time though, it’s our job to punish Liverpool if they push too far forward.

A 1-0 win or even two or three nil would be great; I’d be really pleased with that. We’re capable of beating them, it was 1-1 earlier in the season but we beat them 3-0 here last year.

I think our aim has to be to stop the Liverpool attack scoring; which is going to be difficult because Torres can’t seem to stop at the moment. Shame he couldn’t fucking score against United but there you go. He scored their winner against Everton on Sunday and the Scoucers will be looking for him to do it again tomorrow night. We need to keep an eye on him, don’t let him have a good night and close him down.

I think we’ll go 4-4-2, I don’t really see why we wouldn’t; but you know Wenger, he’s bound to stick one of our strikers out on the wing for some period of the game. Theo Walcott played really well when he came on against Bolton but I think Wenger’s going to continue his obsession with starting Emmanuel Eboue. Maybe Wenger believes that Theo has such an impact as a substitute that he leaves him on the bench. However you have to consider how much of his ‘impact’ is just an improvement from what Eboue had previously been doing on the right flank:

The players with a yellow star next to their name are on yellow cards and it if there were to get booked in this first game then they’d miss the second leg. For Liverpool Gerrard, Carragher and Aurelio are on bookings, if Gerrard or Carragher picked up yellows tomorrow night that’d be a massive boost for us; maybe it’s worth tempting Gerrard into tackles just to get him booked?!

I think Toure will start at right back again. I think it’s too risky to play Hoyte, I could see Eboue playing there and Walcott playing on the wing. That would mean dropping Toure though. In the middle Flamini is going to be crucial again. He’ll control things in the middle and make sure Gerrard doesn’t have it all his own way. He’s been linked with a move to Juve in today’s papers, there’s nothing wrong with Mathieu talking to them, he’s allowed to now his contract ends in the summer. However Arsene said today that the story is untrue and that he spoke to them on the phone personally and they weren’t trying to sign him.

We need to make it a top atmosphere tomorrow night, I knew quite a few people who read my site go to the games so I’m asking you, please, sing up. I know you wont listen to a word I’m saying, you’re probably not even reading this properly…just sort of scanning through the words blah blah blah blah. But I’m talking to you, yes you, go on that’s it, point to yourself yes that it. Now I’m asking you to do your best to join in the singing tomorrow night, when we go up to Anfield next week it’s going to be fucking loud so we need to make our home advantage count.

I really excited now, I hope the players are looking forward to it too and they can channel that into producing good performances.

Right I’m off now, enjoy the game and I’ll speak to you at some point tomorrow. Thanks for reading.