Can Arsenal Use Liverpool’s Draw To Their Advantage?

Can Arsenal Use Liverpool’s Draw To Their Advantage?

Extra time and penalties, new injuries and another confidence-sapping evening at an increasingly edgy Emirates Stadium. Arsenal’s FA Cup loss to Manchester United, following defeat to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, was not ideal preparation for Tottenham’s visit.

Arsenal, already without Bukayo Saka, are now without Gabriel Jesus for even longer. Their attacking injuries, with Ethan Nwaneri also out, leave them reliant on a struggling Kai Havertz. Jurrien Timber and Jorginho were also forced off in Sunday’s game.

Physically, they were looking jaded even before the two cup games, their exhaustion clear in their second-half collapse against Brighton. With no time for a restorative trip to Dubai this year, Mikel Arteta must find a way to reinvigorate his players on the fly.

It is a tough task. How the Arsenal boss would have loved a clear schedule this week. Instead, he must navigate one of their biggest games of the season, one in which anything less than victory will be even tougher for the club’s supporters to tolerate.

But after Liverpool’s draw at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night, a win for Arsenal will take them within four points of the leaders, who have a game in hand.

Of course, Tottenham endured an FA Cup ordeal of their own on Sunday, needing extra time to beat non-League Tamworth. But the physical demands of that game were far more modest than Arsenal’s. Ange Postecoglou also had the luxury of rotating his side.

Their recent Premier League form has been far worse than Arsenal’s, with a solitary point taken from their last four games. But last week’s Carabao Cup win over Liverpool hinted at a corner being turned. They should make the trip across north London sensing an opportunity.

Alexander Isak has become an unstoppable force against Premier League defences and if there is anything that might raise him up another notch, Newcastle have given it to him.

A rest.

Isak started all of the Magpies’ 16 games prior to Sunday’s FA Cup win over Bromley, where he wasn’t even in the squad owing to a minor hamstring complaint, but should be fit to feature against Wolves on Wednesday.

In the absence of any genuine competition with Callum Wilson’s continued injury problems, the onus has been on the Swedish goal machine and he has delivered, with 14 goals during that run.

It’s the longest run of consecutive club starts since he moved to Tyneside in 2022. In the face of necessity he has delivered, which itself was far from a guarantee.

This is a player who scored only six goals in his final season at Real Sociedad before joining Newcastle. One who was brought to Borussia Dortmund as the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic but left without a league strike to his name.

A tough opening campaign at Newcastle was largely hampered by injury but he has not looked back since. His ability to hold the ball up, play with his back to goal, drift wide or play as a conventional No 9 was missing just one thing – the confidence any top striker needs.

With that, is there a better out-and-out striker in world football right now? His nine goals since the beginning of December top the Premier League charts, and with a full week between matches for the first time since mid-October, Wolves had better have their wits about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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