Arsene Wenger has pulled his Arsenal team up from the Europa League positions by winning every single game they played in March, but he doesn’t want his team to have been put off by the interlull. He just wants to keep on winning!
“It’s a big game and an opportunity for us to continue our run, which is what we want to do,” Wenger said. “We are on a strong run and we just want to focus on winning our games, winning the next one. Liverpool is a big opponent but we play at the Emirates and we want to do it.
“You know after the international break it’s always important that you come back and straight away you are on it.”
This particular game is crucial six-pointer, and the fact is that victory will open up a significant gap on the chasing pack, headed by Liverpool, but Wenger refused to be drawn on the numbers. “I’m not too much in mathematics now,” he concluded. “We do that after the game. What is important is just for us to win the game and produce the performance. At the moment, I just want to make sure we have a quality performance and have a continuity of what we produced recently.”
Liverpool themselves have got the problems of Steven Gerrard and Martin Skrtel being banned for the game, but they will be boosted by the return of Daniel Sturridge who had been withdrawn from the England squad. Brendan Rodgers is confident he will be fit to play: “Daniel is back training with the team today (Thursday). We’ll see the reaction of that tomorrow,” he said.
“It was his first day back in so he wasn’t as sharp as he would want to be but he’s back training with the team and should be fine for the weekend.”
Liverpool had a stutter against Man United last week but have been in excellent form since the New Year. Rodgers also expects another good showing at the Emirates. “It’s a game we will want to get something from,” he said.
“In terms of the objectives going into the game, it’s no different to what it was before Manchester United. But of course we had a disappointing result and performance last time out.
“We really want to make sure we perform and give ourselves a chance to get a positive result.”
One thing is sure is that it s going to be an intriguing match between two sides in great form. Nothing is taken for granted on either side but I’m STILL expecting an easy win for the Gunners!
Onwards and Upwards!
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