Alan Hansen’s Premier League Preview: Arsenal v Liverpool

Arsenal lost to title rivals Chelsea at the weekend to cap a miserable fortnight for the Gunners. Arsene Wenger’s team have not won any of their last four matches in all competitions as they’ve slumped to FA Cup defeat at Stoke, been held at Villa and been beaten by their two title rivals. Next up they face a resurgent Liverpool team which has been grinding out some excellent results and will be extremely hard to beat at the Emirates.

The Gunners title hopes lie in the balance and a defeat to Liverpool would all but end their chances with nine points currently separating them and leaders Chelsea. However, both teams above them face very tough midweek fixtures themselves so this could be a chance to close the gap. Arsenal have already beaten Liverpool twice this season in league and Carling Cup so will fancy their chances. The Gunners haven’t lost a Premier League match against the Reds in eight matches (four wins) and boast a good home record against Rafa Benitez’ team.

It’s been ten years since Liverpool last won an away league clash at Arsenal (five defeats & four draws), although they have drawn on the last two visits, both finishing 1-1. Expect a similar result this week as Liverpool will look to smother the Gunners creative talents just as Chelsea and Manchester United did to great effect. Both Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher played in that last away win in February 2000 when Oasis were number one in the charts with ‘Go Let it Out’. Whether the current team can repeat that feat is questionable with their lack of away goals in recent weeks.

The Reds are not playing the most fluent football but they are now showing both strength and doggedness in grinding out results. They are now defensively resolute and winning by one or two-goal margins unlike the end of last season when Benitez’ team was playing the opposition off the park and scoring plenty of goals. Basically, Rafa has made them first and foremost hard to beat, which Liverpool weren’t earlier in the season.

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Liverpool are unbeaten in their last seven league matches (won five) and have conceded just one goal in this run. Rather than looking over their shoulders at the likes of Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester City, Benitez’ team can target the Gunners themselves who will be just two points ahead of them if they can pick up an away win at the Emirates. This may be a good time to face Arsenal with confidence knocked from their back-to-back defeats and once again showing physical weakness against their rivals. Liverpool have shown a real aggression, great work-rate and a will to win in recent weeks which suggests they will get right in the Gunners faces from the off.

Just like Chelsea and United did against Arsenal, Liverpool will pack the centre of the park, force the Gunners wide and make them resort to crossing. This will be food and drink to the Reds defenders who will look to smother Arsenal’s creative talents at every opportunity. I expect Arsene to go with Nicklas Bendtner up front for this one. Although Andrey Arshavin had chances in both matches against Chelsea and United; for me, the little Russian didn’t do enough to command a lone strikers role. At least Bendtner will offer physicality to the Arsenal attack which won’t allow Liverpool to clear their lines so comfortably. The Liverpool defence may prefer not to be facing Arshavin as he has banged in a total of five goals from a mere six shots against them.

This match should be very tight, even though Arsenal are playing by far the better football, it is Liverpool that are defending better. Therefore, I’m backing the draw on Premier 10 with a £30,000 estimated jackpot up for grabs. One single winner scooped the entire £30,000 at the weekend as the lucky Birmingham fan predicted all ten Premier League matches correctly. Could it be you this week?

Tags: Alan Hansen, Arsenal, Football betting, Football Pools, Liverpool, online betting, Premier 10, Premier League

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 13:56 and is filed under Features, Home Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.