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| Carroll looking pleased with his new shirt... Image: caughtoffside.com |
Injury wise for Liverpool the very bad news is that Lucas Leiva will be out for up to 3 months, I'm absolutely gutted for him and wish him the speediest of recoveries. Other than that Liverpool are in a pretty strong position with Daniel Agger also returning after serving a one match ban. For Arsenal, there is a doubt hanging over Szczesny who missed their last fixture.
I can't really get through this post without discussing Friday's transfer deadline day to be honest, I'll try to make it short and sweet because this is supposed to be an Arsenal preview after all.
Friday left us without Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam and Jay Spearing. Whilst Jay Spearing and Charlie Adam were moves we were all expecting, Andy Carroll was not under the current circumstances. We were after Dempsey but that fell through but in all honesty to me Dempsey alone wasn't enough anyway, we needed a goal scorer.
For me, (and I've been saying this for weeks and weeks) the first thing we needed was a clinical finisher. You look at last season and what was missing? Goals. The first port of call from Brendan and the board should have been a goalscorer, if it wasn't then fair enough who I am to dictate? But why on god's green earth would you loan out Carroll without knowing for certain if you had a replacement?!
Overall I'm pretty happy with the transfer window, Allen has snapped in a treat, Sahin looks a talent and Borini looks like he could cause some problems and bag a few goals but I don't see him getting double figures. We needed a poacher perhaps somebody even a bit selfish but we are left with no-one.
Dress it up how you like but somewhere down the line yesterday something went wrong. To me it appears Brendan at least thought Dempsey was a done deal hence the loaning out of Carroll and if that's so then why didn't FSG stump up that extra bit of cash to sign him? We weren't asking £30 million to be chucked around. There are people saying £9 million was too much for a man of Dempsey's age but if that's the case then why the hell was it left to the last possible moment to secure him when clubs can begin to drive a hard bargain?
Either way, as you can probably tell, I'm not very happy at all. This does not however mean as some people on Twitter feel that I somehow have randomly stopped supporting the team. Are you an actual idiot? There is a possible way to question a deadline day with good reason whilst backing the squad we already have.
Anyway, we digress...
If the lads can play like they did against Man City then I would punt for a 2-1 win. This would be a reverse of the last time the two sides met in March this year.
Stat Sandwich
- If the Reds lose against Arsenal it will be their worst start to a season since '62/'63
- Arsenal have drawn five of their last six games in the league.
- If a goal is scored by Liverpool on Sunday it will be the 250th scored against Arsenal in the league.
I for one am very much looking forward to kick off tomorrow so I can forget about deadline day completely. I still would like to see somebody come out and explain what exactly happened because you can bet your bottom dollar that the press will be all over Brendan tomorrow and I doubt he will be able to voice the full story.
Nevertheless I hope he can spur on the lads on Sunday to grab a couple of goals and take all 3 points we certainly deserve it after last weekend's performance. Enjoy the match folks!