Wenger bangs drum but Arsenal look dead-beats

THE words were familiar, the speaker less so. “We have a young team and we do lack a bit of experience sometimes. We just have to stay strong at crucial moments.”

It was a refrain that has been uttered from any number of Arsenal players or their manager Arsene Wenger in recent months, but on this occasion it came from one of the club’s old boys, Jeremie Aliadiere, and referred to Middlesbrough, the latest side to snaffle points from Arsenal’s supposed title hopefuls.

Given the opportunity to play their vibrant brand of attacking football, the evolving Gunners are more than a match for the best the Premier League has to offer. It is the assumption that Liverpool will allow them to do just that on Sunday which so enthused Wenger and his leading goalscorer, the Togo forward Emmanuel Adebayor, in spite of another two points lost.