Arsène Wenger neither forgives nor forgets, it seems. When asked about the saga of Liverpool losing Raheem Sterling to Manchester City this summer, the Arsenal manager said: “They refused to sell us Luis Suárez, so I cannot feel too much sympathy for them. Liverpool are in a position that they can make their own decisions.”
Having watched some of his best Arsenal players join rivals, Wenger might have shown more understanding for Liverpool losing two of a trio of strikers who helped the club to plunder more than a hundred league goals together two seasons ago. Brendan Rodgers seemed as powerless to stop Sterling decamping to City this summer as Wenger was when five of his Arsenal players made a similar move to the Etihad in recent seasons and another, Robin van Persie, was lured to Old Trafford.
Wenger was interested in signing Sterling but the Frenchman might have thought twice after a bruising experience in trying to land Suárez two seasons ago before the striker moved to Barcelona a year later. Arsenal were given inaccurate details of a clause in the Uruguay striker’s contract and their £40 million plus £1 bid was mocked by John W Henry, the Liverpool owner, with a tweet asking, “What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?” Hence Wenger’s lack of empathy.
He said that it was incorrect to castigate Sterling for being greedy, a charge directed at the striker after he confirmed that he rejected Liverpool’s offer of a £100,000 a week before their 4-1 defeat by Arsenal in April.
“I personally rate Raheem Sterling,” Wenger said. “I personally don’t think that Sterling was making a lot of drama. It’s just during the transfer window. During the season the boy was quiet, never made any stupid statement or noise. With Suárez, [Daniel] Sturridge, Sterling, they scored over a hundred goals. To do that you need special quality, and Sterling was part of that.”
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Sterling won a penalty when the sides met in April but home has not been so sweet for Arsenal. They have drawn two and lost two of their subsequent five Premier League games at the Emirates, including a 2-0 defeat by West Ham United in their opening game of this campaign. Wenger acknowledged that home form is the bedrock of a title challenge and that there needs to be an improvement, starting against Liverpool tonight.
“You need to be strong at home, that is for sure,” he said. “If you want to win the championship you need to win your home games. It can happen that you lose the odd game, but overall you need home strength. Against teams who came only to defend, we didn’t find the goal. But it happens to all the other teams as well. Normally you would think over 19 games you can sometimes be unlucky once or twice. Most of the time if you really dominate the games you will win. Liverpool will be a different game than West Ham. Against West Ham, we conceded from a set piece and after it was difficult.”
Arsenal can ill-afford to be vulnerable in the air again facing Christian Benteke, who has the benefit of better service than when he played for Aston Villa against Wenger’s side in the FA Cup final in May. “Yes we will work on it [stopping him],” Wenger said. “We managed to deal with him in the final. Then again, every game is a new challenge and we have to show that we can do it. He has the stature, he is good in the air, protects the ball well.”
Wenger has other considerations, chiefly in selecting his midfield. He started this season with Santi Cazorla on the left wing but moved him to a deeper central role in a formation that he ended last season with. When Jack Wilshere returns from an ankle injury next month, there will be more decisions.
“It’s an impossible job [keeping everyone happy] but that’s why I tell you I always get asked two questions — why don’t you buy more players, and how do you keep them all happy now?” Wenger said. “You have to get the numbers right. If you have a certain number of players who think they will never have a chance to play, it kills something. Not enough players creates too much of a comfort zone.”
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Arsenal (possible; 4-2-3-1): P Cech — H Bellerín, P Mertesacker, L Koscielny, N Monreal —F Coquelin, S Cazorla — A Ramsey, M Özil, A Sánchez — O Giroud.
Liverpool (possible 4-1-4-1): S Mignolet — N Clyne, M Skrtel, D Lovren, J Gomez — L Leiva — P Coutinho, E Can, J Milner, A Moreno — C Benteke.
Referee: M Oliver.