Liverpool have overtaken us now!

[Letters]

It'll be interesting to see what those who have said we can't compete with the billionaire teams have to say about this.

I'd say a couple of things.

1) No-one has ever said it's impossible to compete with those sides but it is very difficult and you need a fair slice of luck. Liverpool have done really well this season and I hope they win the league, it will be good to see a club without the infinite money cheat do it, but where would they be without Suarez? They've had a bit of luck with him not getting any injuries this season. That's the sort of luck Chelsea and City don't need. They can have a top player injured and just bring another £40m signing off the bench. We can't do that. Nor can Liverpool. They've done really well this year but with the added pressure of CL football next year Liverpool's squad will be put under far more strain. Which leads me to my second point.

2) Will Liverpool sustain this level? They've been 'up there' before, but not consistently. What if City or Chelsea decide they're going to buy Suarez next year? Liverpool may have turned up their noses at our £40m (and one!) bid but City could offer £80m to Liverpool and £300k a week to Suarez. They can make an offer which Liverpool would find very difficult to turn down, especially if the player's head is turned by a huge pay offer. And as Spurs found this year, buying a load of decent players to make up for the loss of one outstanding one doesn't necessarily make you a better team overall. The losses Liverpool have made over the last 2 years are not sustainable so how are they going to build on their success this year? We have already been through the pain of a stadium move and with the new commercial deals are well set up long term to compete. Last summer we saw the first signs of more ambition in the transfer market, I'm hoping that will continue this summer. Liverpool have been talking about a stadium move for years and not got anywhere much, unless they manage to do that it will be impossible for them to generate the kind of revenue they need to compete with City or Chelsea long term and if they do move they'll have a huge debt to repay which will make competing even more difficult.

[Letters]

Just looking at the last time Liverpool flirted with the title, 86 points to Utd's 90. Impressive.
They've only finished in the top 6 once since then, before this season.
Sustaining this sort of level is not as easy as some people on here seem to think.

[Özim]

People talk about Suarez and yes he has been outstanding, but they're forgetting that Sturridge has been knocking them in left right and centre as well, so they have two strikers smacking in goals, on top of this Sterling has really come through and is weighing in and Gerrard is pulling the strings in the middle with Coutinho joining in with a cameo role.

As far as the CL is concerned, I understand they haven't had CL this year, but in a sense aren't we saying it's better not to get CL if you can't compete so you can focus on the league, we get 4th every season get knocked out of CL fairly early and then hurt our league chances (it's not just that with us IMO, it's our inability to come through those pressure times with a decent set of results). CL seems to be about money, we get 4th every season and in reality don't really progress much, it's looking like 4th again this season despite our early season efforts, whether we start mid table and come 4th or are 1st and come 4th it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, 4th is 4th at the end of the day.

Liverpool are a massive club and you always get the feeling with them football comes 1st, they'll do anything to keep their best players, I'm not saying they always do but they do have a record of keeping their better players (Gerrard before Suarez), with regards Spurs, yes I agree problem for me is their manager wasn't very good, Rodgers is much better at spotting talent and building a team as he's shown in his career, the right manager can replace top players.

Liverpool are a massive club, with an illustrious history and huge support, it won't take too much to channel this support, a bit of success which is what they have been craving for years (especially the league) and I think it'll be different for them as they won't want to go back to being the bridesmaid.

[Alpha]

The truth is we have handed the title to Liverpool or City or Chelsea . This season was Arsenal's to lose . The only thing which made us be where we are now is Lack of anticipation . You can not expect to win a title with a thin squad like ours without any reinforcement . There are suspensions , injuries , loss of forms or any other circumstances which should have been taken into account and encouraged us to buy in the transfer window but we were deluded and thought we would go in the Guinness record book for winning all the cups with a depleted squad . Even a retarded person can not think that way .
Our board deserve to get eggs on their face . Shame on them . They have fucked it up . Not long ago we were 7 points clear . The team needed a help and didn't get any . What a disaster ?

[LDG]

No they haven't overtaken us at all.

They have a worldy in Suarez, who is probably the best player in the league right now. And they're playing without pressure, without CL to bog them down, and they have been tremendously lucky with injuries etc. The thing is, if you can play a consistent 11 week in week out, which they have been able to do (lets face it, they have only really had the league to worry about), then you stand to be a much more efficient unit.

But I don't want to take any credit away from them, and if they win it, they will have deserved it. Bendan Lipstick, has done a great job with them.

Can they compete, with the stadium they have in the long term? I have my doubts. They need a bigger ground, more investment, and they need a much bigger squad. We have much more in place for the long term, with or without Wenget at the helm.

I think fate has dealt them a favourable hand this year. But why not eh? Would have been nice if we could have had the same luck with a settled side.

[Letters]

This season was Arsenal's to lose

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

If we're still above you in 5 years time, fighting for the title and in the CL then yeah.

Otherwise no.

But I have to disagree with a few things. Why is keeping players fit considered lucky? If you still think having multiple key players injured every single season is down to luck then there's no hope for you.
And in any case, pretty much our entire defence has at some point been injured for long periods, hence why we relied on Toure, Cissokho and Flanagan for a long time. Enrique is still out injured. Sturridge also missed about 8 league games over Christmas with injury as well and Gerrard missed a number around that time as well.
I bet the same people saying "key players" haven't been injured would be the same ones saying that outside Suarez we have a poor team.

[LDG]

If we're still above you in 5 years time, fighting for the title and in the CL then yeah.

Otherwise no.

[Niall_Quinn]

Weirdest fucking thing yesterday, watching Liverpool take the spuds apart. Have they gone back to the traditional red of the 80s with the kit or something? I mean the EXACT shade? And for a minute the style of play reminded me of way back and I felt a guilty affinity with the team, the style, the entertainment value, the authority. It passed in a second of course - dirty scousers! Really though, if they are back then it's good for the game. And fuck it, let's all laugh at Moyes but we need Utd back in this fight as well. There, said it. Proper clubs against the plaything money jokes.

Can Liverpool sustain this. It's very unlikely unless they have unearthed a new Ferguson in Rodgers. And even then he'll need to be given time, maybe years. And they'll need to keep a conveyor belt of talent coming through, not just via the youth ranks but also (unfortunately because that's the way the game has been corrupted) the chequebook. Like us the most important battle will be in the boardroom, not on the pitch. They have the whole journey to make that we are just finishing and we all know how hard that road is.

It's good we are even talking about it though. Some see it as a threat to a God given right we apparently have. Oh look - even fucking Liverpool! That's why some have gone as far as to suggest we let Usmanov play a bigger role. Splash the cash and buy-pass everything that makes the competitive aspect of supporting a club through thick and thin just vanish. Yay - we won! Yay - we won again. Yawn. Me, I want to be playing life and death matches against teams like Liverpool and Utd. If they are tough to beat (in sporting rather than financial terms) then so much better than the sterile alternative.

We'll have our days, they'll have their days. That's what it's all about (or should be all about) and there's nothing scary about it, there's no recrimination. It's sport as it should be.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Liverpool this season will play only 42 games, 38 in the league, 3 in the Fa Cup, 1 in the league cup, no european games.

We will have played 53 (if we go out in the cup semi) or 54 if we make the final. The effect of liverpool playing ten games less is huge, more recovery time between matches, less travelling etc, while if they win the league they will of course completely deserve it, I wonder how this squad would have coped if they had been in europe, especially europa league and playing on thursdays.

If they invest next season properly with champions league football, then of course players will go and they will probably stay up there and perhaps it could be argued they have overtaken us, but they keep talking about moving to a new stadium. We have seen how difficult it is to do that. They have been superb this season but one season doesn't mean they overtake us, lets see how they do next year with more pressure, many more games.