IT’S A GREAT DRAW... FOR LIVERPOOL!
Task facing Arsenal and City could sway title chances Anfield’s way
AS one of the new executive types at Old Trafford has always insisted, success in elite sport can come down to marginal gains.
And the Champions League draw is a marginal gain for Liverpool and their Premier League titles hopes.
Whoever had been picked to face Manchester City and Arsenal in the last eight would have guaranteed an intensely challenging two-legged tie, of course.
After all, the remaining eight teams were pretty much the ultimate super league, but the task now facing City and Arsenal in Europe is as tough as it could have been.
While Liverpool have their own tricky business in the Europa League, the demands on the squads of Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta will be just a notch higher – and we are not just talking about physical demands.
There has been a lot of talk about City players being motivated by the prospect of winning a double treble, but Guardiola had it right when he suggested last month that the chances of completing such an achievement are 0.01 percent. A few weeks later, the chances are probably a little bit greater. But it would still be the most unlikely of feats and, subconsciously, it will be hard for Pep not to prioritise one of the three competitions.
And it is hard not to see that competition being the Champions League.
Imagine what it would mean to him to win it back-to-back by taking care of Real Madrid in the quarters, Bayern Munich or Arsenal in the semis and then triumphing in the final at Wembley.
Guardiola will deny it, for sure, but over the next two months or so, there will have to be a time when he decides one challenge takes precedence – if only a slight precedence – over another.
And that challenge will be to hold on to their Champions League trophy.
After drawing Madrid, he could not hide his love of the tournament and said: “We are excited because it’s a privilege every time we’re here, in the last 16 or quarter-final always it is. It is a special competition.
“I’ve said many times, I don’t know which one is the most difficult of the lot because the Premier League, La Liga or Bundesliga, Serie A… always it’s difficult with a lot of games.
“But this one (the Champions League) is special, going to Europe and with the team, with the club and the organisation, we go everywhere to try to play our best football. It’s so nice.”
As for Arsenal, competing on these two fronts will be a monumental test of how their squad has developed.
And while you can see them getting past a Bayern Munich side that has proven to be very vulnerable this season, you can also see a seismic semi-final clash with Real or City having a Premier League impact.
If the Gunners beat Bayern, they will have a north London derby a few days before the first leg of the semi-final and a trip to Manchester United a few days after the second leg.
Obviously, Liverpool have their own challenges to face and they have had more injury problems than City, in particular, have endured.
But their Europa League pathway – Atalanta and then Benfica or Marseille – looks decidedly less taxing than the jobs facing their Premier League title rivals.
And in the end, that just could be the marginal gain that sways the Premier League title in their direction.
It might not work out that way but there is one thing for sure … proceedings at UEFA headquarters yesterday brought a smile to plenty of faces, and the widest one surely belonged to Jurgen Klopp.