Dalgish warns of wounded Gunners

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish remains wary of an undermanned Arsenal ahead of their English Premier League clash on Saturday.

Despite the Gunners squad looking vastly different without new Barcelona signing Cesc Fabregas and Manchester City target Samir Nasri, Dalglish said he has a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger and his men.

“Arsenal have been most football fans’ second team – they play great football, they’re very entertaining to watch. Unfortunately for Arsenal, they’ve not won anything for six years which is the monkey they’d love to get off their back,” he said.

“So it’s not going to make it any easier for us that they’ve lost Fabregas, Nasri might not be playing and (they have) a couple of suspensions.”

“It’s still going to be a difficult game for us and they’re still a team that I have the greatest respect for.”

The match is all the more important given both sides dropped two points on the opening day of their respective campaigns – Arsenal to Newcastle and Liverpool to Sunderland.

And despite Fabregas’s contentious departure and Nasri’s seemingly imminent move, Dalglish said he would rather not focus on the pair’s absence.

“I don’t know how they’re going to react, it’s up to us to know how we’ll react. We can control what we do and to a certain extent we can compete against them and that’s what we’ve got to do,” he said.

Dalglish’s Liverpool will make the journey to the Emirates for the early game on Saturday.