Liverpool vs Arsenal: a fight to the finish?
Posted by Akzoony in Arsenal, Liverpool | 2 February 2007
I was going to write a bit here about the recent takeover saga but the more I read the more confused I get. I think I’m going to refrain from commenting for a while until the waters clear a little more. All we can say for sure is that with secret meetings, due diligence taking 6 weeks for DIC and only 3 days for Gillett and allegations of threatening and dishonourable behaviour being bandied about all over the place is that there has been a lot more going on than we know about or ever likely will.
I hope im not being naive when I say that I still believe that the one man that knows exactly what is going on- David Moores- has our best interests at heart. May history prove me right!
Anyway in place of that I had a look through this site this morning and stumbled across this article “ Can Arsenal really take over Man United's top spot?” put together by Martin stating the reasons why Arsenal are going to finish ahead of us this year.
It took me a while but eventually I finished sniggering and started to write a reply. This went on for a bit and I decided to put it here instead (for those who choose to not look at Martins article the games mentioned are the remaining fixtures against teams in the top half of the league Martin attests that the greatest challenge left -based on recent results- is Bolton, and states that '..We'll finish in the top 3, definitely above Liverpool and rightly so, and with Chelsea stuttering at present, I think we're in shouting distance of the number 2 spot. Let’s hope so!..'):
Arsenal Fixtures:
Everton away on the 18th March: As Martin states this shouldn't be a problem for Arsenal. They are not in the best of form at the moment, although results are going to get more important soon if they still have European aspirations.
Liverpool away on the 31st March: Do Arsenal fans really think they’ll have it their own way this time? The 6-3 showed the gulf between the youth sides but they will have to do very well to beat the seniors again at Anfield! Henry and co love coming our place (and rightly so for the atmosphere and hard core fans) but with Momo back in midfield Arsenal will do well to get a point here. I have to admit the 3-1 was a bit of a shocker but errors by an out-of-sorts Jerzy Dudek gave away two of the goals and an unfortunate mistake by Riise gave another. Reina will be between the posts this time and he won't have these problems.
Bolton at home on the 14th of April: As stated this should be ok. Bolton haven’t been at their best on the road again this year. Still they are a tough side to break down and with their organisation they are always a touch nut to crack. It will be a great test of Fabregas’s theory this week that Arsenal wont let themselves be bullied anymore.
Spurs away on the 21st of April: don't count your chickens on this one. No foregone conclusion: they gave you a scare in the cup and won’t lay down again here either. Again with Europe a realistic target this is a must win game for them.
Chelsea home on the 15th May: Even with home advantage, with Chelsea hard on United’s heels and John Terry back? A draw here would be a very good result for Arsenal.
In short there are more banana skins in the final run in here than just Bolton. As for Liverpool:
Liverpool Fixtures:
Everton home on the 03 Feb, 2007: I know it’s the derby but we are going into this on form and with a virtual full squad of players available. We should get a few here and I’m looking for Kuyt to get a couple.
Manchester United home on the 03 Mar, 2007: Could go either way. As usual will be a tight game that will be won by a goal either way or result in a draw.
Arsenal home 31 Mar, 2007:see above
Portsmouth away 28 Apr, 2007: This shouldn’t be a problem. I can see a few tired aging legs in Portsmouth’s ranks playing a part here. They’ll still give us a fight especially with Campbell’s cracking form but we should snatch this one.
If you take away the match against each other I see this as a potential WWDL for Arsenal and a WDW for us. This means that Arsenal would drop 4 points to our one.
If this is the case even if Arsenal do manage to do the unthinkable and get the hat trick on us this year (not counting the undeniably impressive Carling ‘youth’ cup) it would only level things up in the table due to our existing one point advantage (assuming Arsenal win their game in hand).
Our goal difference is identical and as Martin mentioned in his article we both share the same recent history of a lack of consistency against the lower clubs. This however I believe is because both of our squads have been developing and this should become less of a problem from now on in.
A win at Anfield looks likely to be vital for Arsenal to have any chance of taking third spot, and to me that would be unlikely. Even then it would only become a lottery as to who makes it.
It should be an exciting final 13 games but -for me- the ball is well and truly in Liverpool's court and 3rd place is ours to lose
sorry Martin!
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