Liverpool v Arsenal - Good job we're not facing Luis Suarez today.

As if we needed any further confirmation, the results of the past weekend have pretty much confirmed what we knew all along.. this season is about one thing and one thing only... Finish fourth.

It got quite excitable for a time when we were still bouncing round with Arsenal at the top of the league just before Christmas but it was never too likely that we'd stay there. Decent, but ultimately fruitless, performances against Man City and Chelsea and the more recent curious West Midlands blind-spot (an odd hangover from last season) has not helped matters.

With Chelsea's surprise win at City a very definite gap has now appeared between the top 3 and the rest - Six points now between us and Chelsea a further two to City at the top.

What the hell was that?

Frankly though I'd have been delighted with being in this position going to February if you'd offered it me at the start of the season. In more recent seasons we've been 15 or so points off the top by now which isn't too clever.

This weekend is going to give us a better idea of where we stand in terms of the battle for fourth. At present we're only two points above Everton, with Spurs a point behind them. Kolo Toure's monumental fuck up against WBA on Sunday really didn't help.

We have the visit of Arsenal to look forward to on Saturday, but rather helpfully Spurs play Everton on Sunday.

Our recent record against Arsenal is not too clever.. the last time we beat them in the league at Anfield was with the help of a Peter Crouch hat-trick (click on the link) in March '07. We beat them in the Champions League at Anfield after that (April '08) but not in the league since. Not too promising really.

We have won at the Emirates since then and how we didn't win there last season was something of a mystery, but we need to improve on this if we are serious about a top four spot. The two games either side of that 2-2 game last season were less than inspiring. Two 2-0 horribly straight-forward defeats in which we never looked liked getting anything.

However most of this recent history was happening during some pretty iffy times for Liverpool and as I said we're getting back up towards the pointy end so I don't think we need to dwell on that too much. We were pretty shit around the whole Hicks / Gillett / Hodgson debacle, now we seem to know what were doing.. a bit more at least.

£40,000,001 - What the actual fuck?

Of course the Arsenal games do have a certain edge to them this season... their frankly laughable pursuit of Luis Suarez didn't help matters. £40,000,001 - I mean seriously - what was that all about?

I think we can probably agree that if Luis Suarez pops up with one of his usual hat-tricks on Saturday then Wenger might start to think that faffing about like that in the transfer market perhaps wasn't a brilliant plan.

It has the makings of a classic.. by which I mean both sides are going to struggle defensively. We didn't really pressure Arsenal at all in the game at the Emirates (not a good sign with the upcoming FA Cup), but at home we have a bit more about us going forward.

Bearing in mind the 6-3 defeat Arsenal suffered at City, well it doesn't sound too much like a water-tight defence. And in Suarez, Sturridge and Coutinho.. well it's not too hard to draw comparisons with City.

Seriously.. he kicked the ball about 6 times that night.

I'm not saying we're going to score six. We might let in three, but if we do there's a fair chance we won't lose. Although another 4-4 might be pushing it. Mertesacker and Koscielny have never really impressed me and if Suarez clicks on Saturday they are in trouble. 




As far as Tottenham v Everton.. well Spurs last home game they lost 5-1 (their 2nd worst home defeat of the season) and Everton lost 4-0 the last time they played away (their worst result of the season, home or away). So maybe they'll both lose on Sunday.. finger crossed.

In the reasonably likely event that this doesn't happen, at least one of them is guaranteed to drop points. Best case scenario Liverpool win and Spurs and Everton get a point each. That'd be us four points clear of fifth... not too shabby compared with recent seasons.

Now just comes the tricky bit of getting the points.