The Slovakia captain says Brendam Rodgers’ men must not allow their rout of the Gunners to go to their heads as they continue their pursuit of Champions League football

Martin Skrtel has called on Liverpool to avoid getting carried away by their stunning 5-1 demolition of Arsenal on Saturday.

Centre-back Skrtel was the unlikely source of the Merseysiders’ opening two goals at Anfield, with the Slovakia captain converting two Steven Gerrard set-piece deliveries inside the first 10 minutes.

That double set the ball rolling for a scintillating Liverpool display, which saw them move four goals to the good by the 20th minute thanks to further strikes from Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge.

Brendan Rodgers’ fourth-placed side now sit just six points behind new Premier League leaders Chelsea after a run of six top-flight games without defeat – reigniting talk of a potential title challenge.

“It was a perfect win for us,” Skrtel told the club’s official website.

“We knew before the game it was going to be tough, and it’s always special when you play big teams like Arsenal.

“We just wanted to start the game well and show we were ready for them – to be leading 4-0 after 20 minutes was perfect. We’re just happy we got three points from the game.

“We are ready. We beat Everton 4-0, we beat Arsenal 5-1 – they are big wins and big points for us. Now we have to be focused for the next game we play, on Wednesday.

“We need to get three points there as well – we’re going from game to game, trying to get as many points as we can.

“We’ll see where we finish at the end of the season. We know what we’re playing for – we’re fighting for our life to get into the top four.” 

The prolific Uruguayan did not find the net himself against the Gunners – despite striking the post in the first half – but his boss insists his star man still played a key role

The selflessness of Luis Suarez was a key factor in Liverpool’s 5-1 drubbing of Arsenal, according to Brendan Rodgers.

The Reds boss was understandably thrilled by his side’s performance at Anfield on Saturday, which was highlighted by four goals in an electrifying opening 20 minutes.

Although Suarez, the Premier League’s leading marksman with 23 goals in 20 appearances this term, was not among the scorers, he still earned fulsome praise from Rodgers after impressing in a wider role.

Rather than playing centrally as usual, the Uruguayan operated largely from the right in a three-pronged attack spearheaded by Daniel Sturridge and featuring Raheem Sterling on the left.

Sturridge scored for the seventh successive match, while Sterling was on target in each half.

Explaining a tactical decision that paid off handsomely, Rodgers said: “We played Daniel Sturridge through the middle to try and exploit his speed centrally.

“Luis Suarez – if anybody needed to know about a guy who plays for the team – he played in a wider role but put in a selfless job.

“The players were tactically brilliant today, but you’ve also seen the appetite and hunger for the game and that was important for us.”

While remaining cool over his side’s chances of winning the Premier League, Rodgers hailed the consistency shown by a team who sit fourth, six points behind new leaders Chelsea.

“There’s no doubt that we’ve been outstanding for a big part of the season. We’ve had one or two off days but in the main the quality and consistency of our game has been incredible,” he added.

The Gunners look ill-equipped to cope with a crippling run of fixtures, while the majestic attacking play of the Merseysiders mean they cannot be discounted in title reckoning

COMMENT
By Wayne Veysey at Anfield

In a scarcely believable opening 20 minutes at a breathless Anfield, anything suddenly seemed possible for Liverpool.

With Arsenal’s advantage over the Merseysiders effectively eroded to five points with more than three-quarters of this top-of-the-table clash still remaining, social media and terrace chatter turned to whether Brendan Rodgers’ team had reignited their title challenge.

Given Liverpool’s total destruction of a side who began the weekend at the Premier League summit, talk of a four-horse race does not seem fanciful.

Taking Jose Mourinho’s equine metaphors further, Arsenal looked the part only in the parade ring. They were barely out of the starting stalls before they should have been pulled up.

What a statement of intent from Liverpool. What a chastening afternoon for Arsenal, who were so overwhelmed by the majesty of the home side’s attacking play that it felt they were lucky to escape Anfield with a scoreline that was not even more humiliating.

“We played in slow motion,” lamented Arsene Wenger. The pace and intensity of a rampant Liverpool, exemplified by an exhilarating display from Raheem Sterling, simply blew Arsenal away.

Per Mertesacker and company will have nightmares about how they were put to the sword during this lunchtime feast of attacking play.

What an exciting team Rodgers is assembling. With old dog Steven Gerrard demonstrating he is capable of mastering the new trick of the quarter-back role, Jordan Henderson adding a subtle dimension to his all-action style and a front four of Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, Philip Coutinho and Sterling as quick in the head as they are across the turf, the new-look Liverpool are producing the most majestic football seen in these parts for two decades.

Lethal on the counterattack and comfortable hoarding possession, they are capable of creating chances almost at will. It is no coincidence that Champions League rivals Tottenham, Everton and now Arsenal have been torn apart by Liverpool in the last two months, not to mention lesser lights Norwich City, West Ham and Stoke City.

A defensive vulnerability and the absence of an A-list midfield anchorman, combined with a squad lacking strength in depth, makes Rodgers’ side the outsiders in the title race.

Yet, even if they fall short this season, the potential is clear for all to see. Should Liverpool hold on to Luis Suarez beyond August, and that is still a big ‘if’, they will be one of the teams to watch in the next few years.

As Arsenal reflect on another marquee-match failure, there is little evidence to suggest that the Londoners have the class and durability to emerge as champions.

The difficulty for Wenger is that the hurdles come thick and fast over the next two months. There is little time for the players to lick their wounds, or for the coaching staff to iron out the alarming frailties against top-class opposition.

In the next 10 days, Arsenal host Manchester United, Liverpool and Bayern Munich at Emirates Stadium. In March, they travel to Munich, Tottenham and Chelsea before hosting Manchester City.

It would be quite some feat if the Gunners are still in the title race, not to mention the FA Cup and the Champions League, by Easter.

Wenger has admitted his team need to find answers. After failing to find those in the January window, which resulted only in the bizarre Kim Kallstrom signing, the Frenchman’s in-tray is overflowing.

In addition to a brutal fixture schedule and the by-now-traditional crippling injury list that affects Arsenal at this time of year, there is also a worrying absence of pace in the front line.

The injuries to Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey have robbed Wenger of two direct runners best equipped to race in behind defences. The knock-on effect is that this negates the threat of the spatially aware Mesut Ozil, who is reduced to knocking square balls to his fellow midfielders or buying time by laying it off to the one-dimensional Olivier Giroud. If they can’t get their best players on the pitch, what chance do Arsenal have?

Arsenal are stumbling, while capital rivals Chelsea soar. At the end of a day in which the top four all featured, Jose Mourinho’s men are increasingly looking the team to beat.

With eight wins and two draws from their last 10 league matches, conceding just three times, they are generating a momentum that is beginning to look irresistible.

Unlike Arsenal and even Manchester City, Chelsea’s main title rival, the west Londoners’ squad is in excellent shape. Their main players are fit and firing, they bought well in January and they have a resoluteness and resourcefulness that is the mark of all Mourinho sides.

In the final reckoning, it is only the lack of a stellar centre-forward that could hamper Chelsea’s challenge this season.

How Arsenal could do with a Suarez, Sturridge or even a Samuel Eto’o. Their lack of activity in past transfer windows is starting to look like negligence.