Welcome back to the latest HuffPost Sports footie live blog. After going minute by minute over two legs between Barcelona and Madrid, we're back to the England for Arsenal vs. Liverpool.
It's a funny thing about these two high-profile stalwarts of the English Premier League. You see, the overwhelming majority of teams in the EPL, and clearly every side in the Championship and all the lower divisions, would give anything that was giveable in exchange for the world-class talent and worldwide cache that these two clubs possess. In all the leagues in all the world, there are perhaps a half dozen football clubs who wouldn't swaps every last brick and ballplayer with either the Gunners or the Merseysiders. The problem for these two clubs is that they are not measured against the wide swath of teams that would trade lock, stock and barrel with them in a heartbeat. They are measured against the handful of clubs with expectations of domestic triumph and designs on European glory.
And, at least lately, both these clubs don't come off particularly well in comparisons against those clubs.
Having just sold Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona, and seemingly on the verge of shipping Samir Nasri to Manchester City, Arsenal are being lambasted as little more than a farm team for the big spenders around the world. To make matters worse for Arsenal, they are even going to be missing some of the key players that they didn't sell off through injury and suspension.
Meanwhile, Liverpool are often mocked as being among the most inept of the big spenders. Although there are hopes that the acquisition of dynamic Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez will eventually be looked back upon as the first of many wise personnel moves.
Chicken Little is watching this one attentively and will certainly be proclaiming that "the sky is falling" for whomever loses this match.
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