Liverpool face Arsenal this weekend in the FA Cup, and after the recent 5-1 annihilation of the gunners, the Reds should go into the game with a lot of confidence. Arsene Wenger's men will be desperate to avenge the Anfield humiliation, but they'll have to do it without one of their most important players, which is great news for LFC.
In his pre-match press conference today, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger confirmed that £15m signing Santi Cazorla will miss this Sunday's game. He told reporters:
“Cazorla is ill in bed today. I have just been informed, so he certainly will not be available for Sunday.”
With six goals/assists in his last eight games for Arsenal, Cazorla is in the midst of a period of excellent form, and the loss of one of the Gunners' key goal threats can only be a good thing for Liverpool.
Brendan Rodgers confirmed today that he will not be resting anyone for the game, and hinted that he'll play a full-strength team. He told reporters:
"We want to win the FA Cup. Thats our objective. We have no midweek games. We can go as strong as we want to go. We wont need to rest anyone"
Arsenal have a vital Champions League a few days after the FA Cup tie, and Wenger conceded that he may be forced to rest some players:
“Will I rest one player, or two or three, I don’t know yet. Certainly we will just have one focus, which is to win the game"
Even without Cazorla, Arsenal have top players all over the field, and they will be hurting after their Anfield obliteration. Combine that with Liverpool's middling away record, and inexplicable failure to reproduce their Anfield intensity during away games, and the game becomes a whole different proposition.
With any luck, Arsenal's players will still be psychologically scarred by the merciless hammering they received at the hands of Suarez and co, but I wouldn't count on it. Indeed, As many Reds fans will remember, Arsenal beat Liverpool 6-3 at Anfield in the League cup during the 2006-7 season, and at the time, I'm sure LFC's players felt very much like Giroud et al feel now.
However, after that game, Liverpool were unbeaten in 6 of the next 7 games, and racked up five victories, including impressive wins over Chelsea and Barcelona (at the Nou Camp). Clearly, the Reds have to watch out for 'wounded animal' syndrome, and Arsenal are more than capable of putting together a similar winning run.
Author: Jaimie K
In his pre-match press conference today, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger confirmed that £15m signing Santi Cazorla will miss this Sunday's game. He told reporters:
“Cazorla is ill in bed today. I have just been informed, so he certainly will not be available for Sunday.”
With six goals/assists in his last eight games for Arsenal, Cazorla is in the midst of a period of excellent form, and the loss of one of the Gunners' key goal threats can only be a good thing for Liverpool.
Brendan Rodgers confirmed today that he will not be resting anyone for the game, and hinted that he'll play a full-strength team. He told reporters:
"We want to win the FA Cup. Thats our objective. We have no midweek games. We can go as strong as we want to go. We wont need to rest anyone"
Arsenal have a vital Champions League a few days after the FA Cup tie, and Wenger conceded that he may be forced to rest some players:
“Will I rest one player, or two or three, I don’t know yet. Certainly we will just have one focus, which is to win the game"
Even without Cazorla, Arsenal have top players all over the field, and they will be hurting after their Anfield obliteration. Combine that with Liverpool's middling away record, and inexplicable failure to reproduce their Anfield intensity during away games, and the game becomes a whole different proposition.
With any luck, Arsenal's players will still be psychologically scarred by the merciless hammering they received at the hands of Suarez and co, but I wouldn't count on it. Indeed, As many Reds fans will remember, Arsenal beat Liverpool 6-3 at Anfield in the League cup during the 2006-7 season, and at the time, I'm sure LFC's players felt very much like Giroud et al feel now.
However, after that game, Liverpool were unbeaten in 6 of the next 7 games, and racked up five victories, including impressive wins over Chelsea and Barcelona (at the Nou Camp). Clearly, the Reds have to watch out for 'wounded animal' syndrome, and Arsenal are more than capable of putting together a similar winning run.
Author: Jaimie K
Take care or we'll unleash our BENDTNER :-)
ReplyDeleteLiverFool are going out on Sunday and their season will be over, just leaving them with the scrap for 4th. And only £150m spent in 2 years to achieve it!
ReplyDelete23 years - no title. Hilarious!
Yes agreed thats great news, strongest 11 should beat them, even a replay would work in our favour, maybe even send them into bigger trouble, (fixture pile up wise).
ReplyDeleteSanti needed a break, so works well
ReplyDeleteI'll bet they won't be playing that really high line again.
ReplyDeleteA bone in his hand I think, he crashed into an advertising board/crowd barrier. Hendo requires surgery but what I understood from the quotes is that he can have the surgery and still play. Used painkillers against Fulham, he's no pansy but it's not like we have many options either...
ReplyDeleteNot playing in the Europa League this season has benefited us big time. The form of Spurs will start dipping again as soon as they play Thursday night matches again which is good for us.
ReplyDeleteNo extra games this season allows Rodgers to take the FA Cup seriously and winning it and finishing top 4 would be a brilliant season!
is he ill with diahorea from shitting himself too much?
ReplyDeleteI fully expect this to be a much tighter game than at Anfield. Even with Cazorla out, Flamini will be back in and I can't see Arsenal making the same defensive mistakes for a second time. Even if Wenger rests a few players, Arsenal's squad is big enough to ensure that their team will still be packed with quality. Plus it's at the Emirates and they will be out for revenge, so I can't see us having the space they afforded us at Anfield.
ReplyDeleteI never thought it was possible to become vaguely aroused by a through ball until Coutinho came on the scene.
ReplyDeleteIf i knew how to photoshop the brazzers logo into a picture of Coutinho playing a through ball, I'd do it.
ReplyDeleteYou can't expect him to do anything against a team that will deny him space and time on the ball. It was possible to introduce him against Fulham because they were dropping off. He didn't even get closed down let alone challenged. He's too young and inexperienced for us to have any expectations.
ReplyDeleteI would have been surprised to see Cazorla anyway. Wenger will make quite a few changes with B
ReplyDeleteI only suggested him for rotation...
ReplyDeleteHow to beat Arsenal: bully them. Treat them like vermin. This is why Utd have the wood on Arsenal, because they know that all they have to do is not let them play around with the ball like they love doing. It worked to perfection in the mold trafford fixture last year. How did we smash them 5-1? We bullied them.
ReplyDeleteI spent most of the Arsenal game switching between "this is sexy football" and "what the f@~k is going on?".
ReplyDeleteIt was one of those positive, but very rare moments of 'what the fcuk is going on?', wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteYeah pretty much after every goal and every chance (and there were a few) of getting more goals. I was hungover and feeling strange and kept thinking "is this happening"?
ReplyDeleteLiverpool should pick them off the break and cause the gooners problems but they need to cut out the howlers in order to get through to the next round.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I feel the best we'll be able to do tomorrow is get a draw, with my expectation being a loss.
ReplyDeleteCombining our defensive frailty and our poor away form with embarrassing Ar5ena1 last week, I just think Arsenal is going to come out firing.
I think if we can survive the first 20 minutes of the match, we'll set ourselves up nicely for the remaining 70 minutes.
Last week was excellent proof of how a quick goal to start the game can alter both teams' mentality.
I expect it to be a good game tomorrow, but I also expect it to be quite frustrating for us as Arsenal will surely have to adjust their strategy after last week's display.
Yeah just don't want us to get too hyped about him... yet ;)
ReplyDeleteOne player out wont make any difference to me, he was playing at anfield last week and was a complete stranger, hes not a messi or ronaldo or a suarez for them, so I dont consider as an advantage for us. I think it will be interesting to see if Wanker does rest some players or not, he could but he could not as well, they will want a revenge I suppose! There are some places that we barely ever play good such as stoke spurs mancs southampton and surely arseanal away, we changed the luck in some of those places, not its emirates and old toilet left, plus I dont know why but when we play with those horrible away kits it gets worse, they surely have an anti effection to the performance, hope we dump warrior asap and get a decent shirt styler as we deserve, because those away shirts are painful to see lfc players wearing them!
ReplyDeleteok thx
ReplyDeleteWell, I would propose a less violent phrasing...not letting them settle on the ball...but I agree with the tactic.
ReplyDelete