Senderos so good they named him twice – Lpool Prev

Highbury
By Boris Mellor
May 7 2005

Four or, even three points, from three games could give Arsenal second place. At the start of Saturday morning Arsenal needed 5 points to be sure of second place, but, even without playing, the total required has now reduced to 4 points.

 Good weekend and we haven’t played yet.

Amazingly WBA held United to a draw. They were one nil down in the first half, I thought they were going to roll over. But they fought back to get back into the game, and score a penalty on 62 minutes – and one-one was how it stayed. It was good to see old red nose looking so glum afterwards, having all but conceded second place.

However Liverpool will not be easy as they desperately want fourth place, and with Everton winning, it is a must win game. A draw will be useless for them, but would be a good result for us.

 Senderos so good they named him twice

We need to make sure they don’t score early, and Arsenal Player of the Month, Senderos, two months running will be key to that happening. We do not want to chase the game against Liverpool, for as Chelsea discovered, that is no easy task. This time Liverpool will have a little more firepower with the CL cup tied Morientes returning to the line up. True Morientes has hardly set the league alight, but no doubt he would like to finish his first season in the Premiership on a high. Also Alonso returns to the team.

Will Liverpool be tired? Probably, but they won’t feel it if Arsenal make any mistakes, or play badly, and they go ahead early as they did against Chelsea. However if we play like we did in the last few games, and keep a look out for the ball with icicles on it, then they should tire by sixty minutes. Gunners will have to be patient and wait for the first goal; and although Arsene never plays for a draw that would still be a good result. For in that case Everton would clinch fourth spot and turn up, on Wednesday, at Highbury, in a holiday mood. Four points would do it, but no doubt Arsene wants to tie it up as quickly as possible to be fresh for the cup.

The only injuries are the same as earlier Henry, Ljungberg, and Clichy, everyone else is fit. I would expect Arsene to stick with his winning team, and leave any changes for the next match against Everton. I would not expect Bergkamp to get two starts out of two at this stage. But once we have second place maybe we can see even more of Wenger’s Kinder Wonderland on show.