Premier League: Liverpool v Arsenal, Saturday, 9.30pm
Arsene Wenger’s future was the subject of speculation. He addressed it. “You will see me go one day, don’t worry,” the Arsenal manager said. “I am at an age where I do not plan decades anymore. I plan month by month. Maybe it will surprise you, but I get offers. The day I feel I cannot take the team further, I will go.”
He spoke as a trip to Anfield provided another talking point. Those words came not on Thursday morning at Colney, but on a previous trip to Merseyside. It was August 2010, after Roy Hodgson’s first league game in charge of Liverpool ended 1-1.
As they renew rivalries on Saturday, one club feels very different, Arsenal remain Arsenal. Mentions of Wenger in connection with Barcelona are nothing new but six-and-a-half years ago, his suitors were not Chinese. They may be now, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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Read more
■ Bournemouth: Eddie Howe should be wary of abandoning principles
■ Liverpool: Same problems to blame for faltering season
■ Predictions: Can Liverpool bounce back against Arsenal?
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That 2010 draw contained red cards for debutants on either side. Joe Cole’s Liverpool career was as ill-fated as the beginning suggested. Laurent Koscielny’s time at Arsenal has progressed rather better. He should return to the team against Liverpool, wearing the captain’s armband in his 280th Arsenal game, after his importance was illustrated in his absence.
When the hamstrung Koscielny limped off against Bayern Munich, Arsenal were drawing 1-1. Within 11 minutes of the restart, they were 4-1 adrift, eventually losing 5-1. It indicated why Koscielny has become a cornerstone. It reflected badly on his hapless replacement, Gabriel. It highlighted a tendency to capitulate that prompted the French defender to say Arsenal have a “mental problem”. It is a widely-held theory. Wenger disputes it, but he is in a minority.
Given the ability in their ranks, Arsenal’s record in big games suggests otherwise. Since beating Manchester United in September, they have played seven games against the Premier League’s top seven, plus Bayern and Paris Saint-Germain, drawing three and losing the other four. A further setback at Anfield would cost them their top-four berth.
Liverpool have already beaten Arsenal this season, even if Wenger will field a side with a more solid look at Anfield. Calum Chambers and Rob Holding were the centre-backs run ragged in August. Koscielny was rested after Euro 2016. Shkodran Mustafi had not been signed then. Not for the first time, Arsenal looked unprepared for the start of the season.
Since then, the German and the Frenchman were forging a reputation as modern-day Invincibles, players who never lost when united. After no defeats in the first 20 games they started together came three in four, even if scores were level in the Allianz Arena when Koscielny departed.
A bona fide Invincible, Sol Campbell, spoke in November of his admiration for them. “They are mobile but calm,” he said. “There is a nice balance.” But, shorn of Koscielny, Mustafi struggled in Munich.
They belong to the modern breed of centre-backs, less physically intimidating and overpoweringly vocal than their predecessors, but bringing pace and anticipation, qualities required if Liverpool recapture their attacking zest. Koscielny ranks fifth in the Premier League for interceptions.
If he has not seemed a natural captain and owed his elevation from the ranks to injuries to Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla, Wenger said in January: “He’s the leader at the back.”
In troubled times, Arsenal require one Frenchman’s leadership, just as another’s seems a constant.
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