Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger can offer little sympathy for Liverpool having to deal with the loss of Luis Suarez and then Raheem Sterling as he looks to get his own team firing again on Monday night.
The Gunners host the Reds at the Emirates Stadium aiming to build on the battling 2-1 win at Crystal Palace and return to winning ways at home following defeat on the opening day of the new Premier League season to West Ham.
Arsenal beat Liverpool 4-1 in April, going on to secure third place in the table and then retain the FA Cup at Wembley. By contrast, Brendan Rodgers has continued his rebuilding job, having seen Sterling follow star man Suarez out of Anfield when he joined Manchester City earlier this summer.
While Wenger accepts losing key offensive players inevitably leaves a massive hole in the squad, the Frenchman has enough concerns of his own preparing to tackle a team which has won both of their matches so far.
“Liverpool is in a position they can make their own decisions. They refused to sell us Suarez, so I cannot feel too much sympathy for them,” said Wenger, who saw the club’s £40millon+£1 (Dh230.6m) bid rejected in August 2013, the Uruguay forward eventually joining Barcelona.
He continued: “Let’s remember two years ago with Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and Sterling, Liverpool scored over a hundred goals, you need special quality to do that, and Sterling was part of that. I personally rate Raheem Sterling. We will see that in the longer term.”
On the back of their 2-0 loss to West Ham, Wenger accepts Arsenal cannot afford too many more poor displays at the Emirates Stadium if they want to mount a serious title challenge.
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“If you want to win the championship you need to win your home games,” he added. “It can happen that you use the odd game, but overall you need home strength.”
Indeed, Liverpool manager Rodgers believes the Reds can land a psychological blow with victory in north London.
Rodgers admits the result is unlikely to have too much impact on the final standings at this stage, yet appreciates an away win over Wenger’s men can greatly enhance confidence among his group.
“You’re playing one of the rivals that you’re hoping to be competing with at the top end of the table; these games are important,” Rodgers acknowledged.
“They don’t give the full picture in terms of how it will finish up – you can draw or lose these games and still go on and achieve what you want to achieve. Of course it’s for the confidence and psychologically they are important.
“No matter when these games come in the season they are always good for the psychological effect. We know they’re an outstanding group of players and some quality individual players but there’s a real focus in this group for this season, a real toughness, mentally.
“We know that we’ve got that ability to scrap and fight to get a result as well as play good football. If we can go there and perform like we think we can and keep to our game-plan we’re confident we can get a result.”
