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Manchester United fans’ fears that Liverpool will be flattened on Sunday are well-founded: Rafael Benítez’s men look spent

The current Liverpool side is the least of Chelsea’s worries as they prepare for a match at Anfield in which victory will put them on the verge of the Premier League title or even make them champions, depending on an outcome elsewhere. If results were all that mattered Manchester United would be more apprehensive about their trip to the Stadium of Light, where Sunderland are unbeaten since mid-December.

All the same, certain matters of plain

• ‘Steven knows he has to improve’ says Liverpool manager
• Alberto Aquilani set for first league start against Wolves

Rafael Benítez has revealed he has held talks with Steven Gerrard over the midfielder’s struggle for form as he looks to the Liverpool captain and Fernando Torres to end the club’s alarming slump.

Liverpool host Wolves on Boxing Day having won only four times in 17 matches, with two rivals for a Champions League place, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, to follow. A miserable campaign reached what Benítez hopes will prove its nadir at Portsmouth last Saturday, with Gerrard on the margins as the Premier League’s bottom club secured a comfortable 2-0 win.

The 29-year-old has made nine appearances since recovering from the adductor problem that kept him out for a month but his influence has been limited in a season disrupted by injury, the departure of Xabi Alonso and the prolonged absence of the Spaniard’s intended replacement, Alberto Aquilani. And Benítez admits he needs a confident, in-form Gerrard to rescue Liverpool once again.

“Steven knows that he has to improve but that for me is very positive,” the Liverpool manager said. “He knows he is a very important player for us and we were analysing his statistics and he is doing much better. In the last game he wasn’t at his level but that can happen in one game.He knows he is improving physically and the main thing now is confidence.

“I was talking with him this week about how to improve. He wants to give more. I am 100% that he wants to give more. He is the captain and he is very important for the team and the club. He is someone who is pushing now and wants to improve.”

Benítez insists the onus is on every Liverpool player to lift the club and fulfil his guarantee of a top-four finish, although the manager concedes there is an added burden on Gerrard and Torres.

“Everyone talks about Gerrard, Torres, Gerrard, Torres. They are very important for us and in any team it would be the same,” he said. “They have to be good and play well and that means the rest of the team would be better. But if everyone can improve a little bit it will be good for the team.”

With Javier Mascherano commencing a four-match suspension on Boxing Day, there is an opportunity for Aquilani, who missed the defeat at Fratton Park with a calf problem, to finally make his first league start four months after his £18m arrival from Roma. And Benítez admits the Italian’s recovery period contradicted medical advice Liverpool received before signing the midfielder.

“We spoke to three different doctors and the worst-case scenario was that he would be out for two months,” he said. “It has been more because he is a person and each person reacts in a different way to injury. He wants to play and we have to manage different players in a different way. A lot of people are talking about him. We know he is a big signing for us and we want to protect him because he hadn’t the match fitness he needed. But with Mascherano not available he will have more opportunities.”

Steven GerrardRafael BenítezLiverpoolPremier LeagueAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

Arsène Wenger sheds his professorial veneer, Wigan unearth another gem and the Midlands clubs enjoy a renaissance

1) If 13 years of sophisticated player recruitment and carefully crafted youth development doesn’t work, just scream

“I’ve never seen him like that before. He said we didn’t deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt,” said Cesc Fábregas of Arsenal’s half-time dressing-down from Arsène Wenger at Anfield. “It is good to be able to surprise the players after 13 years,” was the manager’s almost coquettish explanation post-match. The professorial veneer cracked, and it worked. A slice of fortune courtesy of Glen Johnson and a slab of quality from Andrey Arshavin means Arsenal are well and truly back in the title race.

2) Wigan’s latest secret is out of the bag

As Luis Antonio Valencia and Wilson Palacios have proved in recent years, Wigan have become something of a stepping stone for little-known overseas players, particularly Latin Americans, keen to make their mark in the Premier League. Regular Wigan watchers will have known about Maynor Figueroa’s talents for a long while – it’s not a coincidence that he was an injured absentee for the Latics’ 9-1 stuffing at the hands of Tottenham – but his stunning strike against Stoke means the Honduran’s head is the latest to poke above the parapet. Roberto Martínez admitted his left-back is likely to move on next summer, but at least the DW faithful can take solace in the fact that the stream of talent shows no sign of drying up – Hendry Thomas, Mohamed Diamé and, more intermittently, Hugo Rodallega have all impressed this season.

3) Birmingham for Europe?

Anyone who watched Birmingham grind their way to promotion last season would have known what to expect from Alex McLeish’s side this season, though surely no one could have anticipated it would be so successful. City’s 16 matches have produced just 32 goals, comfortably the least in the Premier League, but Blues fans won’t mind (too much) as long as the team keep winning. And they do – victory over West Ham made it four on the bounce (three of them 1-0 wins) and took Birmingham eighth, level on points with Liverpool. Is it sustainable? Injuries could be costly, but with almost half the season gone, their success can’t be considered a fluke.

4) Aston Villa – Champions League contenders or pretenders?

Aside from the result at St Andrew’s, it was a fantastic weekend for Villa fans. Victory at Old Trafford – the club’s first since 1983 – was complemented by defeats for Liverpool and Tottenham, and draws for Chelsea and Manchester City. Martin O’Neill’s side now sit fourth, though they are no strangers to this territory. Indeed last season they were third much later in the season than this, but petered away, despite their Uefa Cup hara-kiri, to finish sixth. A testing run over Christmas – Sunderland away, Stoke at home and Arsenal away – could be telling.

5) Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

The perception this season is that the title race, nay the whole of the Premier League has become more competitive, with the top teams dragged back towards the pack (or, if you prefer, the pack clawing their way up to their level) but the statistics (those trustworthy fellows) don’t back that up. After 16 games last season the leaders, Liverpool, had 37 points. This season Chelsea have the same total. The fourth-placed team, Arsenal, had 29 points. The gap between the fourth Champions League spot and the relegation zone was 14 points. This season it’s 15. Top to 10th? This year it’s 16 points, last year it was 17. The top teams have certainly been beaten more often – Chelsea three times, and Manchester United and Arsenal four each – than at this stage last year (when the top three had tasted defeat just five times between them), but it’s worth pausing for thought before declaring this Premier League season the most open in an age.

Premier LeagueArsenalAston VillaArsène WengerBirmingham CityWigan AthleticChelseaLiverpoolManchester UnitedJohn Ashdownguardian.co.uk