The case for Liverpool winning their first league title since 1990 may have been given credibility by a satisfying result in North London, but it worsened the more you studied the detail.
Top of the table is never a bad place to sit, but you do wonder how Rafael Benítez’s side are still there after drawing four of their past five Barclays Premier League matches. And you pondered how they expect to remain there unless they resolve the attacking side of their game; an issue that is not purely a question of getting Fernando Torres fit but one of attitude.
The league leaders had the opportunity to push for victory in the second half at the Emirates Stadium yesterday. Arsenal had lost Cesc Fàbregas to a knee injury at half-time and then Emmanuel Adebayor, inset, to a second booking (both cautions easily justifiable despite the boos) with almost half an hour to go.
Here was the chance for Liverpool to apply pressure to a team with obvious defensive vulnerabilities, even with 11 men and, significantly, to record a result that would have been noted as far away as Japan, where Manchester United were involved in the Club World Cup.
Such pressure failed to materialise and if it was understandable that Robbie Keane should start alone up front, it seemed odd that no one should be shoved up alongside him in a bold push for victory. The obvious switch would have been to move Dirk Kuyt alongside the isolated Keane but the Dutchman came inside with only nine minutes to go and ended up playing off the teenage David Ngog.
None of these changes amounted to an attempt by Liverpool’s bench to swing the momentum of the game away from an Arsenal team fired up by what they perceived to be the unjust dismissal of Adebayor.
We must assume that Liverpool would have been no more adventurous had Benítez been sat on the sidelines rather than recuperating at home from surgery to remove kidney stones. Television on, phone clasped to his ear, the Spaniard yabbered away to Xavi Valero, the goalkeeping coach, for the entire afternoon, directing operations from his armchair. If he wanted two centre forwards, he need only have said so.
Perhaps, from a couple of hundred miles away, he did not sense that this was a chance for Liverpool to make a statement, but Wenger appeared as mystified as the rest of us by Liverpool’s lack of adventure. “Were they tired or scared to push on?” the Arsenal manager asked, pointing out that a couple of Liverpool players were suffering from fatigue. “I am convinced that Liverpool will drop many points. Why? Because they already have. They have four draws at home so they dropped eight points there. Why won’t they drop those again in the second half of the season?”
The expected return of Torres, perhaps as soon as Boxing Day, is one riposte. The Spaniard not only brings goals but also a more expansive way of playing. Yesterday Liverpool relied largely, and successfully in the case of Keane’s spectacular equaliser, on balls over the top.
With only one league defeat, fewer than any of their rivals, Benítez might consider that his team remain on course for the trophy that players such as Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard covet above all others.
But after the frustration of draws against Fulham, West Ham United and Hull City, this was another game when you were left to wonder if Liverpool are capable of closing the deal — not only in these matches but in the championship race itself.
Do they have the belief that victory can be theirs? Are they, to borrow a phrase from Sir Alex Ferguson, “ready to win”? In the specifics of one afternoon, and in the broader sweep of things, you would have to conclude that they are probably not.
Top of the table is never a bad place to sit, but you do wonder how Rafael Benítez’s side are still there after drawing four of their past five Barclays Premier League matches. And you pondered how they expect to remain there unless they resolve the attacking side of their game; an issue that is not purely a question of getting Fernando Torres fit but one of attitude.
The league leaders had the opportunity to push for victory in the second half at the Emirates Stadium yesterday. Arsenal had lost Cesc Fàbregas to a knee injury at half-time and then Emmanuel Adebayor, inset, to a second booking (both cautions easily justifiable despite the boos) with almost half an hour to go.
Here was the chance for Liverpool to apply pressure to a team with obvious defensive vulnerabilities, even with 11 men and, significantly, to record a result that would have been noted as far away as Japan, where Manchester United were involved in the Club World Cup.
Such pressure failed to materialise and if it was understandable that Robbie Keane should start alone up front, it seemed odd that no one should be shoved up alongside him in a bold push for victory. The obvious switch would have been to move Dirk Kuyt alongside the isolated Keane but the Dutchman came inside with only nine minutes to go and ended up playing off the teenage David Ngog.
None of these changes amounted to an attempt by Liverpool’s bench to swing the momentum of the game away from an Arsenal team fired up by what they perceived to be the unjust dismissal of Adebayor.
We must assume that Liverpool would have been no more adventurous had Benítez been sat on the sidelines rather than recuperating at home from surgery to remove kidney stones. Television on, phone clasped to his ear, the Spaniard yabbered away to Xavi Valero, the goalkeeping coach, for the entire afternoon, directing operations from his armchair. If he wanted two centre forwards, he need only have said so.
Perhaps, from a couple of hundred miles away, he did not sense that this was a chance for Liverpool to make a statement, but Wenger appeared as mystified as the rest of us by Liverpool’s lack of adventure. “Were they tired or scared to push on?” the Arsenal manager asked, pointing out that a couple of Liverpool players were suffering from fatigue. “I am convinced that Liverpool will drop many points. Why? Because they already have. They have four draws at home so they dropped eight points there. Why won’t they drop those again in the second half of the season?”
The expected return of Torres, perhaps as soon as Boxing Day, is one riposte. The Spaniard not only brings goals but also a more expansive way of playing. Yesterday Liverpool relied largely, and successfully in the case of Keane’s spectacular equaliser, on balls over the top.
With only one league defeat, fewer than any of their rivals, Benítez might consider that his team remain on course for the trophy that players such as Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard covet above all others.
But after the frustration of draws against Fulham, West Ham United and Hull City, this was another game when you were left to wonder if Liverpool are capable of closing the deal — not only in these matches but in the championship race itself.
Do they have the belief that victory can be theirs? Are they, to borrow a phrase from Sir Alex Ferguson, “ready to win”? In the specifics of one afternoon, and in the broader sweep of things, you would have to conclude that they are probably not.
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