‘Wounded’ Arsenal await re-energised Liverpool

In the days when Arsenal were serious challengers to Manchester United's dominance of the Premier League, Arsene Wenger was as inscrutable as Alex Ferguson was excitable. While Fergie was busy chucking tea cups at his players in the dressing room, the Arsenal boss restricted himself to the odd Gallic grimace.

But this season Wenger seems to be more fiery Ferguson than phlegmatic Frenchman. There was his notorious half-time team-talk at Anfield on December 13 when he screamed at his bewildered players that they weren't fit to wear the Arsenal shirt, a tirade that had the desired effect as the Gunners turned round a 1-0 deficit to beat Liverpool 2-1. And now he has taken a leaf out of the Ferguson book on matters of surly defensiveness in the face of media criticism.
 
After Arsenal's 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday, Wenger complained that the Blues had failed to give "a demonstration of football". The comment angered and amused the Chelsea players in equal measure with one, Michael Ballack, accusing the Arsenal boss of being a bad loser.

At a press conference on Tuesday Wenger turned on the media, accusing them of misrepresentation: "I was full of compliments and praise for Chelsea after the game," he seethed, "and I find it completely unfair from the press that you take one word of my press conference to turn it in a kind of probe every time."

Wenger added that the perfidious Fourth Estate had done something similar after last month's 0-0 draw with Aston Villa, distorting his words and thereby incurring the wrath of Villa boss Martin O'Neill. Now the Arsenal manager has had enough. "If you want, we can have a press conference and I can say nothing, don't worry," said a visibly angry Wenger.

Asked to respond to Ballack's comments that Wenger needs to grasp that "football is not possession of the ball and playing a nice pass, football is about winning games", the Frenchman said simply: "I've been long enough in England to know that the team who wins can say what they want... It is my job to take a distance from that and analyse the game in a calm way with a cool head."

But a cool head is the one thing Wenger seems to lack right now. Facing the prospect of finishing another season without a trophy, the Arsenal boss appears to be letting the pressure get to him. And should his side lose to Liverpool tonight – which would be their third league loss on the bounce – the natives in that part of north London might start to get restless.
 
For the moment the Arsenal faithful remain just that, despite their side picking up just one league point from their last three games, and Wenger used the club's official website to sound a rallying cry ahead of the crucial clash with Liverpool. "I believe it is important that I show support to my players and think collectively about how we cannot repeat the mistakes that happened to us in the last two games," he said. "It is important that we support each other and show solidarity and show that people who try to destroy that are not right. This is a team that really wants to win and you have seen that on Sunday [against Chelsea] until the last minute of the game."

With Arsenal's title challenge as stone cold as the weather, they can't afford too many more slip-ups if they're to finish in the top four and gain automatic qualification for next season's Champions League. Liverpool, Tottenham, Man City and Aston Villa are the chasing pack but it's the Reds who pose the greatest threat to Arsenal, particularly as they arrive at the Emirates tonight in a rich vein of form.

Unbeaten in their last seven league outings, Liverpool have weathered a recent crisis of their own when they failed to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League and also exited the Carling and FA Cups. Now they lie just five points behind the Gunners and former Liverpool legend Ian Rush believes they are on the up. "They are picking up some momentum so I do fancy them... they are certainly capable of getting a result but it will be tight, probably only the odd goal in it."

It's ten years since Liverpool last beat Arsenal on their own patch – a goal from Titi Camara sinking the Gunners at Highbury in 2000 – but if they are to sneak a victory they'll have to hope Andrey Arshavin has an off-day. In recent matches between the two sides the Russian striker has ravaged the Reds, banging in four last season at Anfield and scoring the winner in December.

That now seems an age ago and tonight Liverpool are the hunters and Arsenal the prey. As Steve Gerrard says: "Arsenal will be a bit of a wounded animal and we've got to do what Manchester United and Chelsea have to them -  give them very little space and hit them on the counter attack." ·