vs 
Saturday, 20
August 2011
Arsenal
v
Liverpool
7:45pm - Mio : 102 / 110
Fabregas - Gone
Samir Nasri - Leaving soon
- Injured ?
Jack Wilshere
Abou Diaby
Armand Traore
Kieran Gibbs
Johan Djourou
- Suspended
Gervinho
Alex Song
Liverpool
may never have a better time to end their miserable away run
against Arsenal but manager Kenny Dalglish insists his team will
not under-estimate Arsene Wenger's side.
The sale of captain Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona
earlier this week and the impending departure of Samir Nasri to
Manchester City have only added to the Gunners'
problems.
Jack Wilshere, Abou Diaby and Armand Traore were
joined on the injury list by Kieran Gibbs and Johan Djourou after
their midweek Champions League victory over Udinese.
And with new signing Gervinho and Alex Song also
suspended for tomorrow's match everything is pointing towards the
Reds ending a stretch of 14 away matches to Arsenal without a
win.
Liverpool's last victory came in February 2000
and only two of that winning side - Jamie Carragher and Steven
Gerrard, currently sidelined by injury - are still at
Anfield.
Sold: Fabregas joined
Barcelona on Monday in a £35m deal
Rolling back the years: Liverpool's last victory came in February 2000
'Maybe we're due for a win,' said
Dalglish. 'But it is not going to make it any easier for us because
they have lost Fabregas, Nasri is unlikely to be playing and they
have a couple of suspensions.
'It will still be a difficult game for us.
Arsenal have been most football fans' second team because they play
great football and are entertaining to watch.
'Unfortunately they have not won anything for six
years and that is the monkey they would love to have off their
back.
'But they are still a team I have the greatest
respect for and so we go in there and hopefully we can make it as
difficult for them as they will for us.
'I don't know how they are going to react, it is
up to us to know how we are gong to react.
'We can control what we do and we can compete
against them - that is all we can do.'
Having begun their season positively with a good
first half at home to Sunderland Dalglish saw his side fade after
the interval as they were held to a 1-1 draw.
The Scot insists, however, that fitness is not an
issue, pointing to the fact he fielded four debutants and two
players who had been involved at the Copa America.
'The boys that played with the emotions and the
magnitude of the task in front of them, for different reasons, it
was understandable that the second half was maybe not as good as
the first,' he said.
'But we have no problem at all in terms of their
fitness. 'We were disappointed with the performance because we can
play better than that but we have a lot more positives to take out
of it when we look back now than we thought we did at the
time.'
