FREDDIE LJUNGBERG is one of life’s chirpier characters, a maverick who plays football with a smile on his face, but at this moment in time he is worried.

Having spent nine successful years with Arsenal, scoring goals and collecting medals at a rapid pace, his heart will always belong to the red-and-white half of North London and nothing will ever change that.

However, Ljungberg is also a realist and the events he has watched unfold this summer at the Emirates Stadium – the sale of Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City and the imminent departure of Kolo Toure to the same club – have made uncomfortable viewing.

It has left him fearing that the permanent residency Arsenal have had in the top four for the past decade and more is now in grave danger – and he thinks the team who used to give him any number of difficult afternoons are in a prime position to capitalise.

Ljungberg will be part of the MLS All-Star side that takes on Everton here in the early hours of tomorrow morning and, as we speak in the plush Grand Summit hotel, the esteem in which he holds David Moyes and Company is clear as the Utah mountain air.

While Arsenal have, to a certain extent, stuttered in recent seasons, Everton’s steps forward have been straight and true, so much so that over the final 29 games of the campaign just gone, Moyes’ points haul was better than the one Arsene Wenger accrued.

Loyalty means Ljungberg – who was once linked with a move to Goodison Park – would never do anything other than give Arsenal his backing but he feels their place in the Champions League spots is set to be tested like never before over the next nine months.

“It’s hard to predict what is going to happen and the top four is usually and there are very few changes,” said the Swedish midfielder, who now plays his football for the Seattle Sounders.

“This year, though, Manchester City have started spending lots of money and want to get in there; Villa were close last year and Everton had a chance, too. Fourth spot is going to be open this year, I just hope Everton don’t take it off Arsenal. They have a great chance.”

Ljungberg, of course, was part of the ‘invincible’ side that Wenger fashioned in the early part of this decade, a team that played with a swaggering brilliance and often flattened whichever team stood in their way.