Arsenal face Liverpool in a serious test of their mettle and top four credentials this weekend, as the race for top four hots up.
Arsene Wenger has positive news incoming with Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey all returning to full first team training prior to the game this week.
Lack of game time and fitness issues will surely dictate that all of them bar Koscielny start from the bench at Anfield. Koscielny is a piivotal presence at the back as demonstarted by Arsenal’s discombulation at Bayern Munich after he went off injured, and hence he might go straight into the starting lineup.
Jurgen Klopp on the other hand has his squad back at full strength apart from the perennial saga involving Joel Matip who had shown so much promise at the start of the season, only for his game time to be curtailed by issues relating to his national team.
With Mane back in the team Liverpool have looked more than half decent and although they suffered a shock defeat to Leicester City last week. Their form in the year 2017 has been wobbly at best and disastrous at worst. The loss to Plymouth Argyle back in January just sums up their season in short, failure against the weaker teams.
Interestingly, Olivier Giroud with five strikes has more goals against Liverpool than any other Arsenal player bar Thierry Henry who has eight. Him from the bench is a definite goal threat, especially because he comes up trumps in crunch situations.
The late equaliser against Manchester united at Old Trafford to grab his side a draw is one of those classics where the big Frenchman has delivered.
League form has deserted both sides with Arsenal losing two of their last five games and Liverpool losing three in the same time. Arsenal have won their three other games while Liverpool have won just one.
It is shaping up to be an interesting match up and Arsene Wenger will be hoping that his players deliver the goods because without that his position as manager comes under even greater scrutiny.
