“A lot of teams are putting in a lot of money and squads are improving all the time. We’ve certainly noticed this year that sides in the middle of the table and below are an awfully lot harder to beat. A couple of years ago, when you played teams lower down the league you would expect to win games comfortably but I don’t think you can say that this season.

“The lower teams are taking points off the top sides.”

Liverpool will come up against nemesis Andrei Arshavin this evening. The Russia international was in disappointing form against both Chelsea and United during the past fortnight, but seems to save his best for tonight’s opponents, having scored five times in the last two Premier League encounters against Benitez’s side.

But the Anfield manager says: “That’s just a coincidence. Arsenal have good players and it could have been another of their players scoring, not just him.

“It is question of luck sometimes, you have players like Kuyt for instance who always score against Everton, so that sometimes happens.”

Chelsea and United prospered against Arsenal by relying on the counter-attack, but Benitez refused to be drawn on his tactics for this evening.

“Each team is different and has different players,” says the Spaniard. “Rooney and Drogba can play in one way but we have Ngog and Stevie and we will have to play in our way so we will see how we can do it.

“Arsenal had 70% of the possession against Chelsea and to me that is a lot, they had some chances but they were losing from the first minute and that is a situation that is not normal.

“They were going forward and creating so I don’t agree with the analysis that they were predictable and under control, I don’t agree with this. Clearly they are a offensive team but if a side can launch a counter attack then that can have good chances.

“Why have we not won at Arsenal? Clearly, it’s not easy because they are a good team.”