Why Arsenal fans should be HAPPY United beat Liverpool

I know that a lot of Arsenal fans were hoping for a draw in the local derby between Manchester United and Liverpool at Anfield yesterday. With both clubs appearing to Arsenal´s biggest rivals for a top four finish, a draw would have meant that we had a decent gap of three points above United.

But I think that the United win has actually done the Gunners a big favour. It might mean that we are less likely to improve on last season by coming second or third but it does increase our chances of being in the Champions League again next season.

More important than the points from the result, however, could be the damage it does to Brendan Rodgers and his team. They were really beginning to look dangerous and were putting together the sort of run that nearly earned them the Premier League title last year. Now their tactics are not looking so great and their confidence has taken a real knock.

We know that they can really build momentum, winning 11 in a row towards the end of last season and looking unbeatable. This time their run was five wins in a row and just one draw in the last nine league games. But we also saw last season that they can lose all their momentum with one bad game and yesterday´s reminded me of that `slip´ at home to Chelsea last time.

It was Gerrard again and as he is such a big figure at the club, I think they will struggle to regain that momentum which is great news for Arsenal as we face them at the Emirates stadium in our next game and we could end up facing them in the FA cup final. What would be perfect though is for us to punish them further in the next game and then see Blackburn knock them out of the cup a few days later.

With Arsenal in great form and the international break to give us a rest and with Gerrard and probably Skrtel banned for the game against us and Lallana a doubt with a groin problem that has forced him out of the England squad, Liverpool could hardly pick a worse time to play us at home.

So will United´s win prove to be a big help to Arsenal?

Tags Gerrard Lallana Skrtel

28 Comments

      1. Equally big gain for us, the manure match was almost perfect for arsenal ^^

        Gerrard out, Skrtel out, winning streak broken, playing at Emirates – we are clearly favored – Hope the team stays focused enough to keep all the points staying at the Emirates!

  1. Liverpool aren’t out of it.

    Also, because we are third I will be very disappointed if we end up fourth

    I can taste 2nd place. I think we have played better than City the second half of the season and really think we can take second place

    Yesterday, Chelsea’s Win was disappointing. If they had lost or drawn, there was an outside chance of winning the PL especially with us playing Chelsea, but now they have pretty much sealed it (not mathematically but realistically)

    I think 2nd place and FA Cup win would be an improvement from last year and goal we should strive for.

    1. Lets do some fun maths mixed with hypothetic situations: Fabregas’ horrible spring-form continues, ending up with sending Chelsea down to a more unstable position. They keep on winning against the smaller teams, but teams like Arsenal, Manure and Liverpool are too good for them to win. We win at Emirates, Chelsea manage to get max 2 points from pool/manure, which means that they have lost 7 points. We win at OT and against liverpool as well, and we’re 3 points behind only.

      The other matches are like this for (Arsenal): Burnley (A), Hull (A), Swansea (H), Sunderland (H), West Brom (H). The only real struggle to me is Swansea, a team we tend to drop points for every season.

      (Chelsea): Stoke (H), QPR (A), Leicester (A), CryPal (H), West Brom (A), Sunderland (H). A chelsea loss to one of these should be possible, and then we are at equal points.

      A possibility, but not really that probable. A 2nd place and FA cup would be fantastic. Moving in the right direction, as well as getting the players we need. Even 3rd is in my eyes a success

      1. You kind of have it backwards, Chelsea usually show up for the matches vs the big teams, it’s the small teams they had a problem with last season and they had no strike force last season.

        Problem is some of the small teams they play have nothing to play for. Palace and Stoke are safe. They play Sunderland in the second to last week where they’d have either already won the league, Sunderland already relegated or both.

        Unfortunately we have to play 3 teams who will still have much to play for when we play them, Sunderland, Hull and Leicester.

        Chelsea only need 19 points from a max of 27. Knowing that Mourinho will have zero problems drawing vs us, United and Liverpool. They’d still need to drop another 2 points for us to pass them. 4 draws is a lot to ask. They’d need to draw 5 times actually if they draw at the Emirates.

  2. Beat liverpool and we should be guaranteed champions league football we will be nine points clear with a far superior goal difference which is as good as a point .
    We have a real opportunity to finish second do and finish as close to chelsea as possible would love to see us beat Chelsea aswell i despise Jose.

  3. Somehow, i still believe we can still win d league, liverpool bottled it last season who’s to say chelski can’t do d same but we have to do our own part. I still have faith

  4. Nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal!

    I sense the beginnings of ‘it’s in the bag’ complacency creeping in..

  5. That’s why I was disappoint with Manure win, I rather see LFC win because my target is above 4th.

  6. Just as you have said Bob. Every Gooner including me had hoped the Anfield game yesterday will end in a drawn game which will make us to have a better gap above Man utd. Infact all the big 6 including us won their games yesterday. But I think some of them will drop a couple of points (not us) in their immediate games after the International friendlies. I think Man Utd should be winning all their remaining games for this season save when they host the Gunners at Old Trafford and lose the game to us. If they continue to win but the game against us, it will be putting pressure on the Gunners not to relax or have a breathing space as the Gunners will be on their toes to keep winning their remaining 8 Barclays Premier League games and become the Champions.

    1. Yes but it’s HIGHLY IMPROBABLE. Chelsea are currently 6 points ahead with a game in hand. Both us and City would have to get 1 point from our next 4 fixtures or lose the next 3. If that happens and Chelsea beat us at the Emirates then it would be mathematically impossible. As then we’d have 4 games to recover 15 points.

      Ironically assuming we City and Chelsea win the remaining fixtures aside from a draw at the Emirates between ourselves and Chelsea they could win it when Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge which considering last year would be as cruel as fate could get.

  7. If Arsenal fail to win the EPL
    this term this will be the longest
    run under one manager that Arsenal
    have failed to win the title.
    I am not saying this is the worst
    team ever, no that would be harsh.
    But over the last 11 seasons Arsenal has won the same number
    of league titles as QPR Spurs Leeds Bournmouth Exeter
    Halifax and Accrington.
    As for ECL qualification up until recently 3rd or 4th would only
    qualify you for the UEFA league what is now the Europa league.
    Past Arsenal managers did not have the artificial safety net
    the get out of jail card for loser teams.
    In reality Arsenal has been a loser team for the past 11 seasons
    bailed out by the creation of new leagues to give more games to loser teams needing vast finances to pay huge player wages.
    It is not surprising then that this loser team has never won the Champions league just like Accrington.
    Just saying.

      1. Have to agree with Davidnz. Arsenal didn’t begin with Arsene Wenger! We won a title in 53, 71 and 89. I believe thats sucessive periods of 18 years, a long way off the current 11. However, we are heading up there.

    1. That is why they say stats are very misleading. You have compared Our great club to these clubs forgetting that we had to build and finance a new stadium in that time. That is very lazy mate. Put all the facts together then lets analyse as adults. This is the main reason AW is manager at Arsenal and people as shallow as maureen will neva understand. Hate him or like him, the board knows that no other manager would have been able to achieve what he did with the financial restraints of the stadium and yet make champs league 17 years and counting. If 4th spot is really that bad, why are ManU and Liverpool fighting to get in? Also if it is that easy to achieve, Liverpool and spurs with all the money they have spent should have been able to break through consistently at least for the last 3 to 5 years. You neva know what u have until you lose it. But one day, your own children will look to this period and say Arsene Wenger was the greatest manager of all time and I bet when that happens, u will automatically forget the hate and grief fans like u gave to him. What a shame.

  8. Brenda and the lesser Portuguese Gob are already pulling international players out from the international friendlies, I hope Le Professor follows suit. Dirty tricks time.

  9. To be honest I would have liked both to be beat yesterday but unfortunately that was never going to happen.
    We play them both so we need two big results. And that is definitely achievable.

  10. Not too sure I agree with this article. I’d much have preferred a Liverpool in form at the Emirates as opposed to an in form United at Old Trafford. Fact of the matter is anything less than a win for us vs Liverpool and a win for United puts them past us and we still would have to visit Old Trafford. There are still enough big teams playing other big teams for anything unpredictable to happen

  11. There isn’t much difference between 2nd and 4th, but a HUGE difference between 4th and 5th.

    If things go awry between now and the end of the season that 6 point cushion could literally be crucial to the future of this club. Very glad Man U got the win to give us some breathing room, and it changes nothing in our quest to go for 2nd place.

  12. Against liverpool i think both Ramsey and Le Coq have to start really. It will be interesting to see who gets the nod in the no.10 position, Ozil or Cazorla.

    1. after the break, ramsey looking more like he was last season, than the ramsey we saw in sep-dec. hope he keeps it up!

  13. I would have preferred to play against a Liverpool side which is coming from a win. they are wounded and will damn make sure they give it their a against arsenal and that is dangerous.

  14. Hmmmm, it means a win in our next game puts us in pole position for top 4 and it would take a total collapse to fall out. Still possible though. I’d have preferred a bigger gap with United still, but I take the points on board – the only bad result in my eyes would have been a Liverpool win due to momentum.

    As a side note Liverpool should be without Sturridge, Lallana and Skrtel when they play us. That’s some good fortune for us and hopefully means they’ll struggle for a couple games afterwards too. If we can knock them back at the Emirates they’ll start to lose confidence again…one can only dream.

    Totally off topic – why hasn’t Bentaleb been banned for his slap on Ulloa? It confuses me how if the ref sees that it’s a totally deserved red card, if he misses it nothing happens…sometimes the FA is a bit weird.

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