Rodgers the Apprentice aiming to pass the Master test

AS Liverpool prepare to face Arsenal this weekend, the game will see the Premier League’s most experienced manager take on one who still has plenty to learn.

Le Professeur will be hoping to provide Liverpool with another lesson at the Emirates in a fixture which has often proven a testing examination for the Reds.

Our last win at the Emirates came just a couple of seasons ago when Dalglish’s charges won 2-0 with the help of an Emmanuel Frimpong sending off and an own goal from the gunners current man of the moment Aaron Ramsey.

However, Wenger has rarely seen his side conquered at home in this match. The last time he presided over a defeat in the league when there were 11 men on each side it was February 2000, courtesy of a goal from Titi Camara.

It would be fair to say that the pace and invention of Wenger’s team has dismantled the Reds in recent history. The style and craft that have become so synonymous with Arsenal has outmaneuvered the more pragmatic approach that Liverpool have employed over the last decade.  In fact, Le Prof has not allowed Liverpool to take more than 3 points off Arsenal in a league season for 13 years.

But in Brendan Rodgers, Wenger will face a man who will have designs to emulate the Frenchman. Bringing in a new style of football, restoring the team higher up the table and bringing through young players is a wisdom that Wenger has not only mastered, he has made it his magnum opus. Rodgers is seeking to usurp the man who has been the custodian of stylish attacking football on these shores for that last 15 years.

The match this weekend is therefore a litmus test for both clubs. While Arsenal have dispatched Tottenham and Liverpool thwarted Man Utd, both opponents were in transition. Tottenham had just replaced half of their team and Man Utd have been struggling to adapt to the departure of the lord of darkness. This game will see two sides full of confidence and prepared for battle.

There are question marks over each of these sides though and the prevailing feeling is that they are early season pretenders in the title race. Arsenal have had their moments. The opening day defeat led to the annual crisis inquiry into Wenger’s reign at the club after Aston Villa gave a consummate performance in a 3-1 victory over the gunners. Liverpool have proven themselves equally fallible serving an unpalatable performance as they suffered a home defeat to Southampton.

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However, Wenger has remained unbeaten since that Aston Villa nightmare and Rodgers heads to the Emirates on the back of Liverpool’s most accomplished performance of the season while also boasting the league’s most lethal strike force. If they are pretenders, then no-one has had the decency to let them know that the title is not up for grabs this year.

Wenger will feel he has one final trick to unleash upon the Premier League. Having battled long and hard to see the Emirates project realise its true potential, he now has Ozil at his disposal and with old adversary Alex Ferguson out of the picture,  Wenger has a real opportunity to capitalize.

Likewise Brendan Rodgers still has plenty to prove. Not only does he have to demonstrate his ability to manager at the highest level but he is also still in a battle to win the hearts and minds of the Liverpool faithful.

A season which was over before it began last season was never going to cut it with many Reds supporters.

But hearts and minds can be converted quite easily when match wins are racked up so frequently, as they have been this season. So with Rodgers facing little criticism from within so far this year, he will see the opportunity to beat Arsenal at their own game on their own turf as his chance to capture respect, if not devotion, from the faithless in the Anfield choir.

What both managers would be prepared to admit is that they do not see their teams as complete. A couple of additions for each team would add steel to squads which are lacking the depth of their rivals. Neither manager though would be willing to admit defeat in any quest for glory in the league this season. While one eye may be trained on targets for January, the other will be firmly on the summit of the Premier League. It’s one thing to get on to that perch, a whole different matter to hang on there.

So as master meets apprentice in the dugout in this early encounter near the top of the table, a similar battle may arise on the pitch itself this Saturday.

While Ozil struts his stuff as the big summer move this year, Coutinho could make his return to playing action. And though he may have to be summoned from the bench to have an opportunity in this game, a piece of his Brazilian magic might just transform master into apprentice and apprentice into master.

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