Think back 12 months and Merseyside met North London in a double-header on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. At the risk of simplification, it was when everything started to go horribly awry for Liverpool and began to go right for Arsenal. Rafa Benitez's side were lacklustre as they lost 2-1 at Tottenham, Arsene Wenger's simply superb in a 6-1 victory over Everton. Liverpool had been mentioned as title contenders, Arsenal expected to lose their place among the top four.
Both predictions proved wildly incorrect. Indeed, Arsenal were to beat Liverpool three times last season, confirming their superiority in a private mini-league. What the events of August 2009 showed is that momentum, of the right and wrong sort, can be acquired from day one. Liverpool's was largely downward, Arsenal's broadly upward. It explains why a new era is underway at Anfield. Roy Hodgson described last week's match with Rabotnicki in the Europa League qualifying round as his "soft debut".
It hardly needed saying that this is the hard debut. Indeed it makes for a testing eight days. Early-season showdowns against Arsenal and Manchester City constitute a tough start. The preferred scenario would have been for such fixtures to come later in the campaign, when Hodgson had a chance to impose his ideas and introduce his personnel. Instead, with Javier Mascherano's future still unresolved, with Jose Reina, Dirk Kuyt and Fernando Torres having seen no action since the World Cup, with Christian Poulsen's Liverpool career a whole three days old, with enduring uncertainty about which of the two left-backs the club does not really want will play, this represents an examination of the manager's ability to make the best out of awkward circumstances.
Hodgson's Fulham team were supremely well-drilled last season, the product of hour upon hour of training-ground practice and consistent selection. His Liverpool side are likely to conform to the shape of Benitez's - 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 - but identifying the individuals is altogether harder, though Kuyt is likely to play and Torres a risk Hodgson is taking. He is a teacher at the start of term. That Cesc Fabregas has worn a Spain shirt and (semi-unwillingly as Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique forced it over his head) a Barcelona one since his last first-team outing in Arsenal red indicates that difficulties are not confined to the hosts.
Robin van Persie, too, has not featured in pre-season and they are unlikely to play today. But Arsenal arrive with the scourge of Liverpool; two visits to Anfield have yielded five goals, three of them superlative, for Andrey Arshavin. In addition, they possess an auspicious record of five wins and a draw in six warm-up games and with encouraging signs that both newcomers, Marouane Chamakh, the striker and Laurent Koscielny in defence, are settling in well and will prove worthy additions.
For Arsenal, each season arrives with abundant promise. It is the product of their enviable ethos, but it also prompts questions when a team's talents will come to fruition. That both Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs were capped by England on Wednesday was an indication of the ability of their juniors. After five seasons without silverware, however, it is the readiness of the senior side that is questioned, though their aims are higher.
"Success is to win the league," said Wenger, who yesterday signed a contract extension with tying him to the club until June 2014. "It is the only benchmark." For both clubs, then a statement of intent for the forthcoming season would be welcomed. Arsenal lost each of their encounters with their title rivals last season; Liverpool took just 11 points from their 12 games against the teams who finished above them.
Both statistics explain why they finished where they did. Both need to start as they mean to go on. @Email:sports@thenational.ae @TV pointer:Liverpool v Arsenal, 7pm on ADMC Sports 3 & 5, to order: 800-2388 or www.admcsport.com
