Behind you! Liverpool ready to pounce for fourth if Arsenal or Chelsea slip warns Rodgers

14 Mar 2013 22:30

London duo's inconsistency and the fact his clicking team are chasing a fifth league win on the spin gives Reds manager Champions League hope

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Brendan Rodgers has warned Premier League rivals Arsenal and Chelsea: One slip and we’re coming to get you.
The Liverpool boss takes his high-flying side to Southampton on Saturday, looking for the Reds' fifth consecutive league win... a feat they last achieved almost four seasons ago.
Since the end of November, only Manchester United and Tottenham have a better record than the Kopites, a run of form that has taken them to sixth - their highest placing under Rodgers.
And with the two London clubs immediately ahead of them in the table both having inconsistent seasons, there's an outside chance of a late charge for the top four - and Rodgers believes the door will swing further open should Arsenal and Chelsea make any more mistakes.
“The teams above will know they can’t be making any slip-ups, not only because of us but for themselves," he said. "This is the stage of the season when you want to win games, and you have to win them.
“Our recent run of form shows without doubt we’re a team which is improving and developing.
"The result against Tottenham showed the further enhancement of that, and we have to maintain that form to keep moving forward.”
Last Sunday's Anfield win over Spurs was the first time Liverpool had beaten a side in the top eight all season, and was perhaps a turning point in the club’s fortunes after three previous years of struggle.
While a Champions League place is still a faint hope, Chelsea’s internal strife and the precarious position of their controversial manager means it isn’t impossible for the Reds to close the seven-point gap to fourth... especially with the west Londoners facing a fixture pile-up.
Arsenal are only two points ahead of Liverpool in fifth, and their inconsistency is in marked contrast to the run of form that has now catapulted Rodgers' men up the table, after their painfully slow start to the campaign.

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 And according to the Northern Irishman, this a different team to the one he inherited from Kenny Dalglish, and took so long to settle into the new style he introduced at the club.
“People know now we’re a different team compared to the start of the season, for sure,” he explained.
“There is a different mentality now, but there is no point in us getting carried away and looking too far ahead. We can only concentrate on ourselves and get as many victories as we can.
“I’ve seen the change since the turn of the year when we got another two players with the profile that helps this way of working. Anyone watching the team regularly will see the amount of difference but as I said there is still a lot of work to do.”
Rodgers explained that he always expected the season to unfold in this way, with his side initially coming to terms to with a new playing style, before kicking on in the second half of the programme.
And he believes it is just the start for Liverpool, especially with the squad now right behind his long term plan to transform the club.
“It’s all about doing the hard work - the dirty work - to earn the right to play, and these players deserve so much credit for doing that when things didn’t go well at the start,” he added.
“We now know if we work the way we have done in games and make no mistakes, then we’re going to be a real threat going forward, and that’s what we are looking for.”
Keeper Pepe Reina gave the Reds a boost on Thursday when he was given the all-clear to return to training.
He could be back in time to make the trip to Southampton. ------ Mirror Football