By Myles Palmer
Houllier knows what Wenger teaches.
That is why so many games against the scousers have been frustrating for Arsenal.
Wenger teaches his team to play fast-breaking avenue football, slicing down the middle of the field with two or three passes.
Houllier loves to have a workmanlike unit with four gritty midfielders banked back against a deep back four of rugged six footers.
If a team can’t attack Liverpool down the flanks they will usually struggle, as we saw when Man United played in front of them all night long and lost 1-0 to that Gerrard-Murphy gambit.
With Ashley Cole flying down the flank to join Pires and Henry, and Van Bronckhorst now linking those three, Arsenal should be able to over-run Liverpool on one side of the field.
Whether goals come from that is another matter.
I have the feeling that Pires will score.He has been the best player in the Premiership and he gets better every week, taking on more responsibility, scoring more goals.
Pires has seven Premiership goals already and he also scored the first goal in the 3-1 win over Mallorca.
But he will need to see the whites of Dudek’s eyes on Sunday.
Van Bronckhorst scored his first goal – at last! – in Wednesday night’s 3-1 win at Leicester.
I thought he would score his first goal with a 20-yard shot into the bottom corner last October-November, rather than a neat header from 12 yards in January.
What a fabulous cross from Luzhny! He raced onto a tasty pass from Henry and then curved in an exquisite first-time cross from the touchline.
Oleg has always been a good crosser and that cross was exactly the right speed and exactly the right height for Gio.
Without jumping, he was able to nod down into the corner of the net.He didn’t jump, honest.He just stood on tiptoes and sent his glancing header bouncing past Tim Flowers.
If he had tried to head it harder it would probably have gone past the post. The main thing was to head that ball ACCURATELY – and Gio did that.
Van Bronckhorst is an accurate sort of player.He’s not especially fast or powerful, so if he’s not accurate he’s nothing.
Wasn’t it great to see Arsenal score with a header?
One of my many theories is that if you never score from free-kicks, you have to score a few headers.
Recently I was talking about Arsenal needing to win tight, scrappy matches 2-1.
After Middlesbrough that looked like the immediate future for the team and that scenario would do on Sunday.
But you have to wonder whether an Arsenal-Liverpool FA Cup 4th Round tie will contain three goals.
I fancied Arsenal to win the FA Cup in 2002 as soon as they lost the 2001 Final.
When they got a 3rd Round tie at Watford I fancied them even more.I saw that game as an omen.
Yes, Liverpool are tough, but it’s far better to play them at Highbury than at Anfield or on a neutral ground.
HOW MUCH WILL ARSENAL MISS FREDDIE?
They will miss Freddie a lot on Sunday and they will miss him in every game until he comes back in three weeks or eight weeks or whatever it turns out to be.
Freddie Ljungberg is sparky, fast, brave and has scored ten goals. Any team would miss a guy who has scored ten goals. They do not have anybody else who can do what he does.
Richard Wright had a competent game at Leicester and made one good save from Matt Elliott’s header. He could be on the way back to confidence and may yet turn out to be a fine keeper. Who knows?
Main dangers in the Liverpool team?
Owen? Anelka? Berger? Gerrard?
I’m still trying to get my head round Michael Owen as European Footballer of the Year.
Owen is explosive, brave, very focused – and his left foot has improved a lot. I admire the work he put into that improvement.And he is a big game player.
But better strikers than him, like Klinsmann,a good team player who could finish, never won European Footballer of the Year.
Owen had no goal attempt when Arsenal drew 1-1 with them on January 13th. Stats said Anelka had one shot blocked, which I don’t recall, but I’ll take their word for it.
Liverpool played Carragher behind Riise at Anfield and negated Beckham very well. Will they see the need to do the same at Highbury? Or play Riise behind Berger? 25th January 2002.