By LAUREN McCULLOUGH Alberto Aquilani has had the weight of expectation on his shoulders since his big money move to Liverpool in the summer, with the Kop expecting an instant replacement for their Spanish hero Xabi Alonso.

The young Italian has been tipped for greatness at Anfield but has struggled for first team starts since recovering from injury in mid October.

The Kop fans can be forgiven for getting frustrated with manager Rafael Benitez’s team selections so far in this disappointing campaign after last season set up so much promise.

Benitez has continued to persist with Brazilian Lucas Leiva partnering Javier Macherano in midfield, which has left Red’s followers baffled and increasingly agitated after several dismal performances.

Although the Italian has his doubters, with the English game played at a much higher pace and is far more physical than the Italian game, he has to be given a chance to prove people wrong and find his feet.

Aquilani was giving a rare start on Monday night which resulted in a buoyant Liverpool smashing four goals past albeit a struggling Portsmouth.

Despite the poor opposition, it was the Liverpool of old that tore apart a weak defence to grab three goals in six minutes, Aquilani superbly finding the net with his first goal for the club.

The delight on Aquilani’s face was that of pure relief and everybody in Anfield shared that with him, especially club Captain Steven Gerrard who is almost back to his best and his form will be aided with the Italian at his side.

The link up play between Captain Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and the Italian was pleasing on the eye as the Red’s showed glimpses of what we became accustomed to last season.

With the Merseyside team battling to finish in the top four and stay in the Europa League to salvage their season, Aquilani must be a vital cog in the Liverpool machine.

His awareness to spot that crucial match winning pass is likened to that of former Red Alonso and what the team have craved all year.

The disappointing Lucas was left on the bench for the entire 90 minutes and it allowed Aquilani to stake his claim for a starting place in the team, which he did in style playing an important role in everything Liverpool did.

Earlier in the week star striker Torres stated that if Liverpool were to save their season they need more than two stars in their team, they need someone to step up and take responsibility.

The former Roma midfielder did exactly that, if he can cement a place in the starting 11 then the attacking force of Liverpool will receive a massive boost and now maybe Rafa will consider believing in his summer signing.

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By CHRIS SLATER At the start of his City career, Joleon Lescott represented all what was wrong with the new Manchester City. Bought from Everton in a long-running transfer saga, City paid a staggering £24 million for the 26 year-old Birmingham born defender, who had cost a mere £4 million from Wolves 3 years earlier. It was widely seen as City again paying way over-the-odds for an unproven, ‘average’ player. For all the pressure on Tevez, Adebayor and other expensive signings up in the final third of the pitch, it was the defence that had been City’s Achilles heel for several seasons and all eyes were on it again as another possible area of weakness.

Lescott was purchased along with Kolo Toure to be City’s blockbuster defensive pairing, but initially it just wasn’t happening. Scoring goals wasn’t a problem, City were conceding almost as many. In games such as the 3-3 home draw with Burnley, still their only away point this season, the finger was pointed firmly in Lescott’s direction. Many believed he just wasn’t up to it and that the Blues had made a very expensive mistake.

But it was his huge price tag that was the problem. He should have been flattered the club were willing to pay that much. But, instead, it hung around his neck like a noose and he looked visibly edgy and like a man playing under pressure.

 He also had to adapt to playing a very different role at City. At Everton he was the graceful, footballing centre-half compared to the more no-nonsense, stereotypical English defender Phil Jagielka. However at City he found the roles reversed. Similar to Gareth Barry, he had the shackles put on him and was asked to reign in his attacking instincts. Both Mark Hughes, and Roberto Mancini after him, wanted more solidity and a strong, reliable, British spine to the team, especially with the continental style of Toure next to him. He took time to settle into this role, but now he has he is flourishing.

He has been outstanding since he returned from a knee injury which kept him out over the Christmas period. He was produced two immense performances against top-four rivals Chelsea and Liverpool. It is also interesting that Toure that has now been dropped to give Vincent Kompany a chance alongside him. It seems the member of Arsenal’s ‘indestructibles’ does not still have his powers and he may have been the weak link all along.

You cannot help but think whether City would have lost that Carling cup semi-fina 2^nd leg to United if Lescott, and not 19-year old Dedrick Boyata, had been in the box to head away that last minute cross from which Rooney scored. But as Phil Brown said, ‘I don’t drink pints of hindsight, I drink pints of Guinness.’

Now he has found his feet at Eastlands, Lescott will have his eye firmly on an England place. And not just a place in the squad, but the starting XI. When Ashley Cole got injured, his name was banded about as a possible replacement at left back. But it is the position usually occupied by one of Lescott’s heroes, Rio Ferdinand, which he should have his eye on.

Fabio Capello was at Stamford Bridge to see him produce easily his best performance in a sky blue shirt in City’s 4-2 win there. It was, therefore very surprising and almost bemusing to see Matthew Upson line-up next to John Terry in the friendly against Egypt the following Wednesday. Especially seen as Upson plays for struggling West Ham who are shipping in goals. Upson duly went on to fall over and allow Mohamed Zidan to score the opening goal at Wembley.

“Hopefully we can continue our form, get fourth place, and I can go off to South Africa with the England squad” Lescott said yesterday. Don’t bet against him being a staple in England’s world cup team and a Champions League defender next season. He deserves both.

£24 million? Bargain.

Right, got that out of the way and I really don't know where to begin, so I'll start with the points that spring to mind immediately. Our first was an own goal, Wigan got an equaliser very quickly, we really could have had two or three more last night and apart from the first twenty minutes or so and the last five or ten, it was all Aston Villa. Oh, and James Milner was man of the match, but an Irish mile.

I´m not going to go into too much detail because that is for tomorrow and after I have watched the game again but barring the opening 20 minutes or so and the last five - it was all us.

Arsene Wenger has said on Arsecom following our last minute decider at Hull on Saturday

“Manchester United used to score late, yes,” he said. “I believe that this season nobody has scored more than Arsenal in the last 15 minutes. Maybe it is down to a technical superiority and a never-give-up attitude. That is what I like in my team. When I see them on the pitch, I know they will not give up.”

Now excuse me for being a little at odds with that thesis Arsene…

Time was Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and a certain Thierry Henry would rip the guts out of opposing teams in the first fifteen minutes at Highbury. The oppos would stop singing, JOB DONE! Was I wrong?

Well being the blogger that I am, I decided to go back and look at the stats courtesy of ARSEWEB

So for all you “what about a return to George Graham’s one-nil to the Arsenal?”, goal scoring then under Arsene Wenger was the recipe to success. Our attacking pace and flair through Henry meant that The Invincibles squad made history by players scoring two goals each on six occasions, one hatrick and the memorable four bagger by Henry against Liverpool.

That record breaking season we scored 7 from the penalty spot. We scored 69 goals ourselves with our opponents contributing to 4 goals in our end of season total of 73 goal amassed Thierry Henry was top scorer with 30 in the league.  In terms of timing of goals

17 goals were scored in the first 20mins and 18 goals were scored within 20 minutes of the restart.

Remember that team went on to become the Invincibles. Unbeaten over 38 games 26 victories and 12 draws. They really did rip the desire out of teams. I agree that it is good to keep on fighting until the end and score that last minute winner. But is it really the hallmark of Arsenal Champions?

Not on the stats Arsene…

The thing to do with ten minutes to go is to shut up shop and NOT concede, rather than go looking for goals. On the amount of possession, this team must learn to finish the job earlier than at present, if only to keep my blood pressure down.

So Insiders? Over to you, what do you think?

The bonus to that is I failed to mention that Manchester City also have a game in hand on Spurs in fourth place and two games in hand on Liverpool in fifth place, so all things considered, if we were to play all three games tonight and win them all, we would be three points ahead of Spurs in fourth place, having played one more than them.

Against a team more focused on defending we looked good and pacy going forward at times. That was until Heskey and Carew started to lumber towards the box much like how I imagine the Titanic moved trying to avoid that iceberg.