How will Arsenal cope with pace of Sterling?

It does not take a football genius to work out where the main danger lies for Arsenal when we travel to Anfield to take on Liverpool. With Luis Suarez gone, Daniel Sturridge injured and Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli….well let’s be kind and say not very good, the stand out threat is young Raheem Sterling.

Brendan Rodgers has now taken to using the dynamic young player as his central striker, although in more of a false nine or `Messi` role. He looked a bit lost there last weekend against Man United and missed their best chances of the game, but two goals against Bournemouth will have the confidence flowing and the Gunners must find a way to nullify the threat he poses.

It would be great to have Koscielny available because pace is a big part of Sterling’s game, but whoever plays, probably Chambers, will have to be careful not to let the sluggish Per Mertesacker get left in a race with him. At least Chambers, Debuchy and Gibbs have good pace so they can really help the German, as can Flamini and the Ox in front of the back four.

It might even be worth detailing one of the two to do a marking job on Sterling, because after him there is not too much to worry about in their attack. Of course, the best way for us to cope with Sterling is the old saying attack is the best means of defence.

Arsenal have more than one dangerous player and if Giroud, Welbeck, Alexis and Cazorla are on song, Sterling should be starved of chances and be more worried about helping his own defenders rather than tormenting ours. Do you think we need to woory and plan specifically for Sterling, or just play our normal game?

Tags Chambers Flamini Mertesacker ox

12 Comments

  1. we don’t usually have something good to complain about, going into a controllable game…… UP NEXT: STERLING’s PACE

  2. word of caution!…….. Lets not turn all our attentions to sterLing while forgetting they have Coutinho or Marcovic……..any player can become any team’s nightmare at any time……..so i say, we control the game, dominate pool’s entire players and have this one un the bag 7-1 (do we score much goals?) would sweet revenge but i prefer a clean sheet with a Large margin…..COYG

  3. I don’t think liverpool will press so far up the pitch as they did in our Anfield defeat. They know we have fast players such as Ox, Welbeck and Sanchez who could punish them on the counter attack. I have a feeling that they will sit deep this time round. What we can do is to pressure them early on and force their leaky defence into making mistakes. Their defensive unit is defo not solid as Rodgers changes their back 4 very often, and the experimental back 3 against United failed miserably. If we start this game with a higher tempo, I think we could score more than 2 goals before half time. However, we do need to take note of Sterling and Coutinho, who IMO are our main threats. If we can keep a tight defensive unit and defend as a team, we should win this game comfortably. Our attack is more than capable of handling jokes like Lovren and Skrtel.

  4. Now that you mention it, it would be good for someone like Debuchy to put in a strong challenge against Sterling early on. That’ll teach him not to mess around and do little tricks.

    1. If you want a player to do that let it be our striker in their own half. He will only get a yellow card before being subbed in the 60th minute.

  5. he struggled against a good team so he’s going to do that again on Sunday. Sterling crumbles in any big games

  6. We should be talking about Liver(What?) and not one player. One on one, which team is better? Only if our players don’t show up (if they don’t know what is at stake). All I want is revenge, after all, we are smoking something nice.

  7. 2 things, first we already seen what one very fast player can do when up against Chambers whom showed a slight lack of real pace. Second i wouldnt go into the game believing that Sterling will be starved of chances , liv are the home side and we know how their fans will be up for it also this is the Arsenal we are talking about.

    I just pray that our strikers take any chances they get. So important in the big games.

  8. Its my hope that this article has been written by a Liverpool fan. Otherwise y are u glorifying Sterling like he is nwhere near our own Welbeck? Give us a break! Anyway let me answer u: just the way Newcastle,Chelsea,Crystal Palace and Sunderland dealt with him. THE QUESTION should be: How will Liverpool deal with the power of Giruod, The pace of Welbeck ,The skill and vision of Carzola And the Magic and class of Sanchez???

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