Tell that to Sevilla who are now in the Champions League because they won the Europa League.

What has Savilla got to do with anything?

Unless they are in the premiership its utterly different

Plus Liverpool's task this season has to top 4 or getting in a place where they can at least starting to challenge for a top 4 place. The UEFA Cup will not help in that task.

So their task is to finish in the top 4 so that they qualify for the Champions League, which ironically they can also qualify for by winning the cup that should be disregarded?

Nothing to do with Champions League, It's about getting into the top 4. The money with the new TV deal plus the players you can attract with being a top 4 club has got to be their aim. While either way gets you Champions League football being a top 4 club will be more beneficial going forward then Champions League and being 5th 6th team etc. This season there are places up for grabs in the top 4 (with our start and the normal questions over Arsenal and and Utd being a team rebuilding). The UEFA cup is a distraction that they can do without

The only reason it's the Top 4 you're on about and not the Top 3 or the Top 5 is because there happens to be 4 CL positions, so it's everything to do with that. 4 is just an arbitrary number otherwise. It's the lure of the CL and the extra revenue it brings that will attract the best players. If there were only 3 CL positions then we'd be talking about them trying to break into the Top 3.

I am talking about the top 4 because going forward that's where I think the threshold will be to be considered one of the top clubs in English football to be one of the title contenders etc, even if we lost the 4th place Champions League place. 5th place I think will be stretching the "top club" brand name more so as Liverpool's big club history goes further and further into the mist's of time.

There is a very good opportunity at the moment to get into that group and its a opportunity that I don't see lasting very long.

From a brand and business POV, The UEFA cup for me is just too weak to make it worthwhile. The FA Cup with all its history and its connection with fans makes a much more sensible trophy to go for.

With the level of many of the teams, The day of the games, the perception of the competition the number of games etc etc, I really don't see enough upside for a club like Liverpool, Yes for many clubs it might be worthwhile but for a small number of clubs i just cannot see it

Begovic; Ivanovic (c), Zouma, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Matic, Fabregas; Pedro, Oscar, Hazard; Costa

SUBS: Blackman, Terry, Mikel, Ramires, Loftus-Cheek, Falcao, Remy

Pedro, Fabregas and Ivanovic down our right flank. Sanchez and Ozil will be licking their lips. We will just have to hope Brana returns to something like his old form, otherwise it's going to be a painful lunchtime experience.

Lucky Costa but Gabriel's no angel!

Both could have been sent off to be fair. Gabriel was fortunate not to have a penalty awarded against him though for the challenge on Hazard.

Well done Zouma, just what we needed.

Didn't see the first half...is Costa likely to get in trouble? From what I heard he had his hands in someones face?

Err just a bit.

Should be going for a second not faffing around like this.

Arsenal down to 9. Well we've got to win this now surely.

We've. Got a second,..........?man sent off.

Sensible decision to sub Costa at this stage.

2-0 now we can relax.

2 goal win against arsenal, the only team to win in Europe..

I guess we didn't need to sack jose after all, sorry uk media

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.
Nothing to worry about at all, we looked a different team today. Which I suppose begs the question..what the hell was happening in the previous games this season ?
Excellent performance from the start. Costa was lucky to stay on, but we had dominated the game before they went down to 10 men, and were unlucky not to get awarded a nailed-on penalty. Let's hope those early season performances will just become a distant memory, and this will be the start of a run of victories.

https://streamable.com/jjtc

^ Here's what happened.

Very good performance even before the sending offs.
Would of liked to of seen us go for the second a bit earlier.
I am probably in a minority but Costa is looking like a bit of a liability. Hope I am wrong but will be amazed if he doesn't get sent off soon.

Yep some promising signs today that their mojo might be coming back. As others have said, we were looking the better team even before the Gabriel red card. It's a relief to have kept 2 clean sheets in a row after the deluge of goals conceded before that. On paper we have a decent run of PL fixtures coming up, hopefully we can chalk up some more wins.

Always nice to win against Arsenal and I'm glad we managed to finish the game with a clean sheet. Oscar's passing was a bit sloppy today (he had a 78% pass accuracy and the only outfield player who had a lower percentage was Costa with 71%) but he did well to start our pressing movement. Hazard seemed to be getting back to his best - he was dribbling with a lot more purpose than in recent weeks.

Our defence actually looked good today - Cahill and Zouma handled Walcott without too much trouble and Ivanovic didn't look like a walking liability. So happy to see Zouma score, especially from a Cesc set piece - it's been a long time coming!

Zouma, at just 20' could be a chelsea player for the next 15 years!