The way I see it – Liverpool v Arsenal

With the benefit of hindsight, I was certainly right not to have any high expectations because the Arsenal put in another below par performance.

From an attacking point of view, though we did have one or two chances, there was absolutely no conviction in what the Gunners were trying to do. Wiltord was about as conspicuous as Lord Lucan on the night, a virtual passenger in fact.

And as for our midfield quartet of Pires, Gilberto, Edu and Parlour- well they all seemed to be trying to outdo each other in a contest to see who could make the most wayward passes on the night.

Time and time again, particularly in the first half, the Arsenal midfield threatened to drop their defence right in the brown stuff with their reckless, wasteful passing but thankfully, Keown, Toure and Lehmann had their wits about them and just about managed to keep. Make no mistake when I say that we would have lost but for those three.

I must admit that I am not sure whether our draw in Moscow will turn out to be a point gained or two points that we have dropped. What I do know is that if we are going to get out of this group phase we will have to step things up big time.

If our trip to Moscow wasn't enough of a searching examination for the Arsenal, we've got another one on Saturday lunchtime at Anfield.

Watching the Gunners taking on United at Old Trafford is always something that I relish but if anything I relish our trips to Anfield even more. The reason for that partly lies in the fact that I have the sort of respect for Liverpool that I don't have for United and partly down to the fact that it has proved to be a telling fixture for us over the years one way or another.

I have to admit that I do have a problem with current Liverpool boss, Gerard Houllier. There is something about the guy that really bugs the living hell out of me though I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is.

I have also found his team irritating top watch over the years as well though, if last Sunday's game against Charlton was anything to go by, there are signs that Houllier is finally waking up and smelling the coffee.

True, they did lose to Charlton last week but I have to be honest and say that I was pleasantly surprised at the way Liverpool went about the game. I saw them play earlier on in the season against Villa and Everton and I didn't think that they were anything special but Houllier, strangely for him, elected to employ a very attacking line up against Charlton.

Kewell, Diouf, Smicer all played alongside Heskey and Owen and with Gerrard sitting in front of the back four. The more attack-minded policy reaped a dividend early on as Liverpool, having dominated the first 20-25 minutes, went ahead through Smicer. However, Liverpool didn't quite manage to build on their early dominance and Charlton ended up winning 3-2 in the end.

What makes Saturday's match all the more intriguing for me is that on recent evidence, the roles of the two sides appear almost to have been reversed somewhat.

I never thought that I would find myself talking about a Liverpool side that appears to be adopting a more attacking attitude. In contrast, I never thought I would find myself admitting that the Gunners, at present, seem to be the side that are struggling to appear convincing.

The bottom line as far as tomorrow's game goes is this; I know that Anfield doesn't quite have the same aura that it once had and that the present Liverpool side is hardly a patch on some of the great sides of the past but at the same time, Arsenal are not going to preserve their lead at the top of the table this weekend by going to Anfield and playing in first gear.

You can't keep blagging your way to victory every week particularly if you have serious designs on winning the Premiership title. It's time that the real Arsenal stood up and Anfield is not a bad place for that to happen.