The midfielder was ruled out for two weeks after suffering a groin injury in the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, but his manager feels a first-team return at Old Trafford is possible

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed that midfielder Mathieu Flamini could be available for his side’s trip to Manchester United.

The 29-year-old picked up a groin injury in his side’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.

And Wenger has confirmed Flamini could be available for his side’s visit to Old Trafford, which comes a week after Saturday’s clash with Liverpool.

“[Mikel] Arteta is back from suspension, [Serge] Gnabry is still out, [Mathieu] Flamini could be available for Manchester United,” Wenger told reporters.

The Gunners boss also spoke of his side’s current mindset after losing to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup – their second home loss on the trot – but is confident his squad are ready for high-flying Liverpool.

“The mood is very positive at the moment, our priorities are the league and the Champions League,” he said.

“I have complete confidence that we will deal well with this period, the players will be up for it. I learnt a lot about my team during the spring, I know how much we want it.

“We have a good away record in recent years and we suffered at home, Liverpool is an example of that. We had a difficult period at the Emirates last season, it’s up to us to get the crowd on our side.

“Suarez and [Daniel] Sturridge are among the top strikers in the league. Giroud has been exceptional since the start of the season and has a different style to Suarez.”

Manchester United are the only team to have prevented either Liverpool forward from scoring in their five electrifying games together, though their brilliance is mainly individual

ANALYSIS
By George Ankers

Five games, 10 goals. Some feared that the return of Luis Suarez from his suspension might have inhibited Daniel Sturridge’s scintillating early-season form but a switch by Brendan Rodgers to a 3-5-2 system has turned the pair into the Premier League’s hottest strike partnership.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, whose side are the only team so far to have stopped the pair from scoring in a 1-0 Capital One Cup win on the Uruguayan’s return, feels that it is too early for the duo to be showered with such praise. He may be right – inheriting Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton’s ‘SAS’ title may be premature with only a handful of games together in this form – but that does not make the task of stopping them any easier for Arsenal on Saturday.

In the age of the lone striker, Rodgers’s reshuffle to allow both men to prey where they play best has paid dividends. Whereas last season Sturridge was used more on the flank during his bedding-in period, in their games together in 2013-14 the two have occupied a very similar average position just right of centre.

Though both have freedom to indulge themselves and move away from there into wherever they can find space, each tends to skew away from that average position in a slightly different direction and performs slightly different roles.

Sturridge’s heat maps see him dropping deeper to pick up the ball, often back in his own half, as he receives possession to his feet in front of the opposition back four. Against West Brom on Saturday, the England star received 46 of 49 passes in front of the penalty box. By comparison, Suarez only received 40 of 48 that far back, with more license to attack the channels, in particular the left, from where he scored two of his three goals.

This is reflected in their attacking statistics. According to Whoscored.com, Suarez has been offside 1.8 times per game in the Premier League so far, compared to Sturridge’s 0.8, demonstrating the former’s likelihood to be the furthest man forward.

The Uruguayan’s bloodthirsty attacking zeal is also demonstrated in his dribbling stats – 3.3 per game compared to his partner’s 2.2, and his 5.8 shots per game against Sturridge’s 3.5. Suarez also offers extra strength on the ball which makes him a slightly more ruthless, relentless machine. For all his extra dribbling, he is only dispossessed on average twice per game compared to 3.1 times for the Englishman.

Though this divergence nominally makes Sturridge more likely to create for Suarez, there is, however, little difference in terms of one providing for the other. Paired together, Sturridge has laid on four chances for the Uruguayan, with two converted, while the other way around has yielded one goal from three opportunities created.

Despite the deadliness of their partnership, it is not their interaction particularly which makes them dangerous. Passes between the two do not reach double figures either way in any given game. Largely, each is fed by other team-mates and their individual brilliance does the rest.

What all this means for Arsenal is that there is no obvious supply line between the two that they can aim to cut in order to break the spell of their combination. The ‘SAS’ are not more than the sum of their parts, it is just that their parts are of the highest quality.

Even Manchester United, who kept both of them off the scoresheet in their cup win, did not dominate especially or mark them out of the game. Had it not been Suarez’s first game back after suspension, the Uruguayan would probably have finished at least one of the chances that he spurned.

With no obvious template to follow, then, the Gunners need to be sure that they get the basics right. They have momentum going for them, allied to in-form goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and a strong pair of defenders – particularly Per Mertesacker – who may fare better than most at outmuscling Suarez on his dribbles.

The absence of Mathieu Flamini with injury is a severe blow as a dedicated defensive midfielder dropping deep to supplement a back line most used to dealing with lone frontmen would have been a sensible precaution to take – however, in what may simply but effectively be the best counter to the supremacy of Suarez and Sturridge, they also have a genuine ability to outscore Liverpool themselves.

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The Liverpool forward, a transfer target for the Gunners over the summer, has returned from suspension in blistering form and the Spaniard has sympathy for his situation

Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta admits it is “a pity” for his side that Liverpool striker Luis Suarez did not move to the Emirates Stadium last summer.

The Uruguayan was the subject of repeated bids from the Gunners but the Reds blocked the move and he has since scored six goals in five games, with Arsene Wenger’s men his next opponents.

And Spaniard Arteta has expressed his regret that Arsenal could not land Suarez’s signature, suggesting that he is a “really good lad” deep down.

“It’s a pity Arsenal could not get Suarez,” Arteta told The Sun. “People don’t know the real Luis.

“He’s a really good lad. I know Suarez really well. He used to live in the next house to me and, whenever I’ve met him, he’s always been really nice.

Arteta also praised the “character” shown by the Liverpool forward to return with such devastating effect after his lengthy suspension.

“He is a tremendous player and he has shown a lot of character to get back after getting criticised and on the front pages a lot,” Arteta told the Daily Mirror. “He has gone on to produce some great performances and his goalscoring record is amazing.

“It was very difficult for him because he had a lot of people against him and he was under massive pressure.

“Last summer, when everyone thought he was leaving, he still came back and put in some great performances. I like players like this. When they are on the floor and everyone is on them they stand up and prove themselves and I admire that.”

Suarez missed months of action during his 10-game ban, incurred for biting the arm of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic, but Arteta sympathises with the forward after extensive criticism for his actions.

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my career, not only in matches but on the training ground against your own team-mates,” the Spaniard added. “Everyone can lose it.

“I lost it once against Morten Gamst Pedersen. I poked his eye. Afterwards, I was like: ‘What are you doing? This is stupid!’ but you get upset, you get frustrated and you do some stuff. It’s not right.

“He accepted it, he apologised and I think he did everything he had to do to try to learn from it in order to not do it again. Sometimes you do silly things in life. What you want to do is learn and not make them again.”

After a tough summer on the transfer market, including their failed pursuit of Suarez, some pundits had backed Arsenal for a season of struggle but Arteta rejects the notion that such talk allowed the table-toppers to relax into their fine early form.

“I wouldn’t say the lack of expectation on us took the pressure off,” he remarked. “We had so much pressure. After [losing to Aston Villa on opening day] we were under massive pressure.

“The crowd were getting into us. They weren’t happy with the results, they weren’t happy with the lack of signings and so the whole club was in a difficult position. To turn that around is a credit to the lads, the board and the manager because he didn’t hurry to make any decision just to take the pressure off his shoulders.”