Arsenal dressing room but I think my excuses were a little obvious and they stopped me from leaving. Not sure how that ended, we probably stuffed them 5-2 or something. That type of score line today is improbable, I can see a very tight and defensive game from the home side and if they stop us playing then I am not sure how much football will be played, that of course will all change if we can score an early goal and the early goal will depend on how we start the match. I have watched a few Liverpool v Manchester United games at

By some miracle we could witness the same side that convincingly spanked our neighbours, since then they have all travelled around the world to various destinations to take part in meaningless football matches and while we have a few doubts, I hope that all of those doubts will have cleared up and they should all start the game today.

The obvious hope is that they can reach the levels that they achieved in our very spirited and committed victory over Tottenham but like I have said a few times already, I fear the legs will not be as strong as they were at 30 minutes played last weekend. I do expect this to be a completely different game to our last one though. Daglish would have seen what we did to Tottenham and he will look to stifle our game first and foremost and then look to impose their own game.

Steven Gerrard has been a doubt for them since he hobbled off during the England match with only half an hour gone but something tells me that he will start, especially as they have Daniel Agger out for two weeks which is a big blow for them. I actually had a dream last night about this. I was in the Liverpool dressing room as some sort of mole, Daglish told Gerrard to play as center back to fill in for Agger and I was desperate to get the news back to the Arsenal dressing room but I think my excuses were a little obvious and they stopped me from leaving. Not sure how that ended, we probably stuffed them 5-2 or something.

That type of score line today is improbable, I can see a very tight and defensive game from the home side and if they stop us playing then I am not sure how much football will be played, that of course will all change if we can score an early goal and the early goal will depend on how we start the match. I have watched a few Liverpool v Manchester United games at Anfield and if they play the same way then we can expect very high tempo pressing, chasing in packs and plenty of crosses into our box.

Thomas Vermaelen dominated Andy Carroll completely at the Emirates earlier this season so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. Come to think of it, there are plenty of interesting individual duels on show all over the pitch.

Jose Enrique has had the better of Theo Walcott on a number of occasions. But hopefully Theo’s brace last weekend will give him the edge. On the opposite side of the pitch Kieran Gibbs may have his hands full with Suarez but with former Liverpool attacker Yossi Benayoun ahead of him he should get plenty of protection. We are stronger than they are in midfield, even if they have Steven Gerrard. If both sets of midfield works hard then our trio of Song, Arteta and Rosicky should be able to keep the ball better than Gerrard, Adam and Henderson. That is my view and only time will tell if that is to be proved correct.

Liverpool remain unbeaten at home so far this season, although many have been draws where they would have been expected to win. It will be tough to come away with anything at Anfield but a victory up there would be absolutely massive for us, so much so that I think it would put us in the driving seat confidence wise and with many of our players back or coming back to full fitness.

This is the type of game where we might have to see a very good defensive performance and some of that character that we showed in the NLD. A scrappy 1-0 victory to us would do nicely. We have to get revenge on them for their smash and grab victory at the Emirates earlier this season.

We want to see the same fight, the same commitment and the same character as we saw last week. All Arsene has to do is tell the players to play the exact same way, if we do then our quality and overcome Liverpool. We have the better players all we have to do is match them elsewhere. If we do then why can’t we win?

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

It would be great to see Abou Diaby come off the bench to smash in the winner. He makes the squad for the first time in months. Late last night I wrote a piece about Diaby‘s return and whether or not he should have a future at the club. Got time to kill before the game? Well have a read.