Arsenal, Liverpool have chance to pull ahead of pack

There is a sense that every Liverpool game revolves around Luis Suarez. Whether he is starring or scoring, suspended or simply riling opponents, the Uruguayan has an almost unrivalled capacity to be the centre of attention.

But there are still more reasons why the striker will exert a magnetic allure for the cameras today.
With six goals in four games, including an extraordinary hat-trick against West Bromwich Albion, he is the Premier League's most devastating striker for now.


He is also the man Arsene Wenger wanted to spearhead his Arsenal attack this season.
For a while, too, Suarez hoped to sign for the Gunners.
They bid £40 million (S$79 million) plus £1, thinking, as Suarez did, that it would trigger a release clause. It did not.

Liverpool derided the offer - "What do you think they're smoking over there at (the) Emirates?" tweeted owner John W. Henry - and turned it down.

After rejection came reconciliation and Suarez's return to the fold and form.
Yet, if Liverpool are profiting, so are Arsenal. If they had signed Suarez, they might not have been able to afford Mesut Oezil, the new darling at the Emirates Stadium.

Had they bought another striker, Olivier Giroud would surely have been benched. Instead, the Frenchman has proved to be one of the revelations of the season.

Oezil and Arsenal's other artists have benefited from the battering ram with the surprisingly deft touch in attack. Yet, if their strength lies with the midfield creators, Liverpool's threat comes from the forwards, Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, who have scored 14 of their 17 league goals.

The intrigue comes from their differences. Liverpool might have the division's most potent strike force, Arsenal its classiest midfield. The broader question, as first host third, is if either possess the quality and mettle to sustain their early-season form and actually win the title.

There are reasons to doubt both. Arsenal have dropped only five Premier League points but have lost their last two home games - to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and Chelsea in the League Cup.
They have to prove they can win the big matches, especially in the absence of Mathieu Flamini, who added steel to a stylish midfield before he was injured.

They have faced only one of the top eight, Liverpool just two. Still, the league positions owe something to their ability to defeat the best, rather than just the rest.

Yet, in a closely-contested and congested title race, there is the chance to surge from the chasing pack - Arsenal finished fourth last season, Liverpool seventh - and become the team to beat.

Wenger is bullish in his belief that Arsenal are potential champions while Rodgers prefers to dodge the question.

Yet, whatever the sceptics think, today's winners have to be taken seriously. They must be called title candidates.