LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE

Wining the 'rematch'

Knock Liverpool out of the FA cup in, what is almost a rematch and, given that one of Chelsea & Man City will exit this weekend, the Cup may very well be up for...well you know the rest of that oft quoted adage. Beat Manchester United on Wednesday and we can confirm that this team has the ability to bounce back consistently, and apply some pressure on our competitors while psychologically brushing aside the club that, under Ferguson, were our long term nemesis and putting another nail in what many see as United's current coffin of broken dreams. The Bayern fixture? who knows but I maintain that at present, the Champions League is beyond us, therefore this game is something of a barometer.

Which brings us to Saturday afternoon's debacle: many have summed things up far more eloquently, and others with extreme hysteria but what is undeniable is that for Liverpool that first 20 minutes could not have been better. Team selection prior to the game showed a distinct disregard of Liverpool's qualities, substitutions during the game highlighted those errors in selection. Yes we had (as always seems to be the case) injuries that restricted us somewhat but with Flamini's suspension it seemed obvious that energy was needed centrally.

Putting another nail in the coffin

We lost, we move on. My view on the manager's part in this loss can wait for another day but I think it's fair to say that a tactical approach has never been in Arsene's armoury and in that fact lies our problems against the teams with which we are contesting the title. If Manchester City and Chelsea have better squads, and of course given their expenditure they should have, a tactical approach is needed to nullify their quality and options: defying the odds if you will. Same for when playing a good team on form with a World class striker away from home, but our way is to play our game and not concern ourselves overly with cancelling out the opposition.

I guess my bottom line is that I don't think this approach works when it comes to the crunch fixtures.

To borrow from Boxing: a fighter who is out fought can often win by ensuring their opponent is out thought.

Defying the odds