Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Let's compare Arsenal,Chelsea and Liverpool

Get the new iPad Air. Converts on a zip submit. US traffic only. No incent. No Co-Reg. Offer Cap: 1,000 daily. Let's compare Arsenal,Chelsea and Liverpool The title race? I don’t know what to say about Manchester City,. So I just want to compare Chelsea and Arsenal and Liverpool today. First thing to say is that Brendan Rodgers has improved Daniel Sturridge, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling beyond recognition. The team’s penetration used to come largely from Stevie G but now it comes mainly from Luis Suarez, an improvisational warrior who plays like a man possessed in every game. Arsenal also play attacking football but their style is completely different. In their ensemble style, five or six midfielders move forward in various combinations to create goals for each other. The most obvious difference between Liverpool and Arsenal is what the centre forwards do. While Giroud is invariably has his back to goal, Sturridge usually sprints towards the penalty area. When Sturridge doesn’t have the ball he’s usually sprinting towards the goal, or trying to get into a position to sprint towards the goal. Arsenal play a possession style, trying to keep the ball and move their whole team forward to create openings with support running, while Liverpool play their passes sooner and longer and faster. Chelsea's defensive style is one that is unique to them. Jose Mourinho prefers clean sheets and diagonals and a well-drilled machine that’s rather one-paced, even though he has plenty of fast players. Theirs is still a game of organised power football and when they generate momentum and pressure they often score from corners and free-kicks. Eden Hazard is very creative but a dribbling playmaker needs more options, a needs sparky diagonal runner or two, like Kun Aguero or Freddie Ljungberg. It’s really nice for Liverpool fans to be 11 points above Manchester United but that's quite irrelevant to the task facing their club. What now matters for Brendan Rodgers, like any manager in March, is the next game. Liverpool have a burning desire to get back into the Champions League. And not being in Europe this season will help them qualify for next season. Norwich beating Spurs 1-1 might turn out to be one of Liverpool’s best results of the season, since it leaves Spurs six points behind fourth place. I’ll be following Liverpool closely in the coming weeks because I find their directness rather exciting. Pace is only thrilling when a team finds the best way to use it and Raheem Sterling did exactly that from his own half when he released Sturridge to score the first goal in their 4-3 victory over Swansea at Anfield. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have now played 27 games. Manchester City, who have played 26, are a team I’m gonna leave for another day.

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