Wenger catches on to the caution game

Arsenal v Liverpool: As Houllier wavers, short of width and creativity, fellow Frenchman revels in bonus of Jeffers

Zapping through the sports channels while his long-suffering partner hummed "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (he claimed last week to have forgotten), Arsène Wenger must have discovered cricket. Suddenly the Arsenal manager is playing everything with a straight bat. Victories at home to Liverpool this afternoon and Chelsea on Wednesday would lend an air of impregnability to his team's defence of their championship title, but while entitled to play with the carefree air of an Australian opener facing England's bowling, he is patting everything back down the pitch.

"Arsène, if you beat Liverpool, you'd be 12 points ahead of them, it would be a fantastic position, wouldn't it?" "Listen, we know that it is important for us to be consistent. It's too early to speak about the championship but we know it's important to be consistent and strong at home."

"Can you put them out of it if you go 12 points ahead of them?" "Not completely, no. It's too early. There will still be 17 games to go."

"With Liverpool and Chelsea coming up, it could be a pivotal week for the championship, couldn't it?" "Well, it will be an important one, but not a decisive one. If we were at Easter, I would say yes, if we beat Liverpool they will never come back, but at the moment there are too many games left."

Perhaps the caution is prompted by memories of being tempted into that injudicious hook a couple of months ago, when he agreed that Arsenal could go through the whole season unbeaten and was immediately caught Moyes, bowled Souness. Caught too by Liverpool, who – it is astounding to recall – spent one Saturday night in November seven points clear of the side that now lead them by nine. Gérard Houllier's team have been scratching around ever since for the victory that would put them back on track.

Achieving it against Manchester United or Everton would have been as much of a boost to morale as to the points total, but both left Anfield smiling, and with Blackburn having done the same on Boxing Day, Liverpool are back on the road for a week, hoping that their counter-punching can land a winning blow at last, either at Highbury this afternoon or Newcastle on Wednesday.

After being outplayed by Arsenal in the newly-named Community Shield game back in August, Houllier claims to have decided on a bolder, more pro-active strategy for the season. With his midfielders scoring prolifically and then Michael Owen finding his touch in the autumn, it was working for a while, and the Frenchman's neat progression from finishing fourth, third and second in successive campaigns briefly seemed to be destined for its logical arithmetical conclusion.

A struggle to finish above Everton in the table was hardly what was expected at that stage, but that has now become the first step in an arduous-looking climb back towards the summit. Owen has not scored in the Premiership since 2 November, the underrated Stéphane Henchoz had a costly period of absence from defence and now Steven Gerrard and Danny Murphy are having to carry the midfield through the holiday period. No creative talent like Dennis Bergkamp; no natural winger like Robert Pires or Fredrik Ljungberg; no striker as reliable as Thierry Henry; no wonder Anfield's championship credentials look so thin in comparison to Highbury's. Mixing and matching players through five games in a fortnight is a tricky managerial exercise. Houllier does not seem to know his strongest line-up at the best of times: what to do with El Hadji Diouf, or Emile Heskey or Vladimir Smicer?

Houllier's assistant Phil Thompson has dismissed suggestions that Liverpool's title hopes will be over should they lose today. He recalled a parallel with last season after he was forced to take temporary charge following Houllier's heart scare. "It hurts not winning games and we badly need a good result," he said, "but we went into a similar game away to Manchester United last season after a few bad results and we ended up beating them and going on a good run. People were writing us off then and it's the same scenario going into this game."

At Chelsea, Claudio Ranieri suddenly reverted to his bad old habits on Boxing Day and saw a much-changed team held at home by Southampton. Sir Alex Ferguson understandably felt it desirable to bring Roy Keane back, yet with his misplaced faith in Laurent Blanc lost the rhythm established by a winning team.

Wenger has lost players, but with an enviable combination of luck and judgement came through the sort of game, away to West Bromwich Albion, that potential champions must win. Finding Bergkamp and Ljungberg unavailable, he picked Francis Jeffers, who reminded us why he was considered to be worth £8m with a poacher's goal at a critical moment, immediately after half-time. A record of three goals in 20 appearances for a fox in the box might suggest the hounds must have got to him; in fact, those goals have come in only three Premiership starts.

"I'm very pleased with him," Wenger said. "He became so frustrated with one knock after another and when you're so young it's difficult. In the last two or three months he's looked sharp in training and looks good every time he plays in the reserves. He scored the kind of goal you expect from him. When you look at it, he's on the move before every defender. He has qualities we miss in the squad."

If the manager was caution personified on the topic of winning the title again, he was more outgoing about the nature of the Premiership as a whole, and the extra effort all teams make against defending champions: "The lower teams have improved and this season is better balanced, though surprisingly we have more points at this moment than we had last year. Last Christmas we were second. We are focused and the pressure of being first or the second is the same. Ever since the start of the season, they've been gunning for us because we did the Double. We saw that at West Brom, where their dressing-room before the game was like they were going to war. Everybody's like that, but we are used to that. To beat Arsenal is a major achievement in their season. The team have learned this season to cope with that and that's part of the learning process we had."

A change of bowling, and a googly: "Would you be surprised not to win the title from this position?" That wide, straight bat again: "At the moment it's too early to speak of the title. What we look for is to put the same effort into every game and to show that we are capable of being consistent."

But Wenger's channel-hopping has taken in athletics as well: "We are in the middle of a marathon. When Paula Radcliffe won the marathon, she was ahead in the middle, but I have seen many lose it as well." Liverpool, Chelsea, United and the rest can only hope Arsenal are about to hit the wall. "They showed they're a bit ahead of us," Houllier said after defeat in Cardiff five months ago. They still will be this evening. The only question is by how much.

North-South divide The last four confrontations

11 August 2002
Community Shield: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0
Gilberto Silva (68 min). Attendance: 67,337

The new season and the old rivalry was ushered in by Steven Gerrard's tackle on Patrick Vieira after five minutes, which many deemed worthy of a red card. Things calmed down and a scrappy game was deservedly won for the champions by Gilberto Silva's goal on his debut, set up by Dennis Bergkamp.

27 January 2002
FA Cup 4th round: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0
Bergkamp (28). 38,092

Three players were sent off on a tempestuous Sunday afternoon as Arsenal took revenge of a sort for the previous season's FA Cup final defeat. Martin Keown went for pulling back Michael Owen; Dennis Bergkamp, who had earlier scored a rare headed goal, lunged at Jamie Carragher, who followed him down the tunnel after throwing a coin back into the crowd.

13 January 2002
The Premiership: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1
Ljungberg (62); Riise (68). 38,132

Nicolas Anelka's return to Highbury petered out (he had to be substituted at half-time) and a match that neither side could afford to lose did the same. John Arne Riise broke on to Steven Gerrard's 50-yard pass to equalise soon after Fredrik Ljungberg had put the home side ahead from a Robert Pires cross.

23 December 2001
The Premiership: Liverpool 1 Arsenal 2
Litmanen (55); Henry (44 pen), Ljungberg (53). 44,297

Arsenal's first Premiership victory at Anfield for nine years proved a springboard for their eventual championship success, achieved as it was by playing with 10 men for 55 minutes. Giovanni van Bronckhorst, already booked, received a second yellow for diving, but the visitors then scored twice and held on against guileless opponents.

Compiled by Steve Tongue