Liverpool v Arsenal big match preview (Anfield, Sunday, KO 4pm)

Oct 28 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

OF all the theories put forward to explain Liverpool’s alarming loss of form during the past six weeks, there is one that stands out above all the others.

While Rafael Benitez’s side have lumbered from Champions League defeat to Premier League underachievement, a frustrated Xabi Alonso has been left kicking his heels in the stands.

The statistics alone illustrate the impact of the Spaniard’s absence. Since the midfielder fell victim to the curse of the metatarsal at Portsmouth in early September, Liverpool have won just three of eight games, slipping to fourth in the league and to the brink of embarrassment in Europe.

Now, after returning to the squad as an unused substitute in Istanbul against Besiktas in midweek, Alonso is primed to once again take his place at the heart of Benitez’s midfield as Liverpool entertain leaders Arsenal in today’s titanic contest.

And Benitez believes the return of Alonso will prove influential and bring an extra dynamic to the team’s forward play that has been missing in recent weeks.

“It’s clear that with Xabi, Daniel Agger or Fabio Aurelio, players with quality in possession, you can improve your attack,” he says. “The question is to find the balance. Xabi is a top class player. If he plays well, then the team plays well.

“In midfield we have Gerrard now playing better the other day, and if you have Gerrard, Mascherano or Xabi playing well then you know the team will play better.

“Xabi can play with pace. He has pace with the ball. It’s important that we have someone who can switch the play before the opposing defenders are organised, he can pass the ball 40 yards so the defenders don’t have time. Sometimes you need a player like Xabi.”

Should he make today’s starting line-up, Alonso will come up against compatriot Cesc Fabregas, the Arsenal midfielder whose scintillating form has propelled the Gunners to the top of the Premier League and a run of 12 successive victories.

While an undeniably impressive sequence, it must be pointed out that nine of those games have been played at their Emirates home with Arsenal yet to negotiate any significant hurdles this season.

Although Arsene Wenger’s side won at Anfield in both the FA and League Cups last season, Liverpool have scored three straight home league wins over the Gunners under Benitez’s tutelage.

The only remaining unbeaten top-flight records will go on the line today, and Benitez is confident his side are primed to make amends for their Turkish torment on Wednesday by ending

“Arsenal are in a very good moment right now, they are playing well, scoring goals and have confidence,” he says. “But at Anfield, against a top team, the motivation for our players will be easy. We will look to control them when they have the ball and beat them when we have the ball.

“It could be a test for Arsenal to play against a top team, and for us a test to play against the team that is at the top of the table.

“It’s a bit like the derby against Everton. Everybody was saying we weren’t playing well, but in a derby anything can happen, and it’s the same in a game against a top side as Arsenal at Anfield; anything can happen.

“It’s a long race and you will have a lot of difficult games. We have had difficult games recently and maybe Arsenal have had easier ones, especially as they scored early on in midweek.”

Despite Liverpool’s disappointing recent form, they are still enjoying their best start to a Premier League campaign since Benitez arrived at the club in June 2004.

And with the injury list starting to clear, the Spaniard is confident of success today.

“Last season, we were something like 12 points behind the leaders at this stage, there were two teams at the top with more or less the same number of points,” says Benitez. “But now, with just Arsenal ahead, there is just one team and you know they will have problems and difficult games like all the other teams and will lose some points.

“I have confidence we will beat Arsenal and be three points behind. But if we cannot, it is a long, long race and we need to keep going.”

Liverpool’s recent profligacy was highlighted against Besiktas, with only Steven Gerrard’s late header to show for 28 shots on goal.

Matters should improve with the return of Fernando Torres from injury today and, while happy with the overall performance of his strikers, Benitez acknowledges the need to be more ruthless.

“We should be scoring more goals, especially when you have 28 attempts like we did on Wednesday,” says the manager. “Our problem now is that before, we were so good in defence we could create chances and chances and we’d finally score and get a result.

“But now we are making some mistakes in defence and you can see the results. We have to give the strikers the confidence in the defenders, it’s a vicious circle.”

However, Benitez believes there have been signs of an improvement in Liverpool’s last three games, even though the only victory of that spell came in the controversial Goodison derby last Saturday.

“We are not playing at our level but we are improving now,” he says. “The last few games we have been improving. We showed character at the end of the game against Tottenham, we played really well in the first 20-25 minutes against Everton and we showed character again later on, and the other day against Besiktas we had plenty of possession and created chances. But I agree that we need to score more.”