Liverpool (AFP) – Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger dropped top scorer Alexis Sanchez to the bench for the crucial Premier League clash with Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.

Sanchez, who has scored 20 goals this campaign, will sit alongside the second leading scorer Theo Walcott, who has 15, in a game that could prove decisive ultimately to either side qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Wenger, whose own future could hang on them reaching next season’s elite European tournament as his contract is up at the end of the present campaign, opted for Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck to lead the attack.

Arsenal, who are without ill playmaker Mesut Ozil, occupy the fourth and last Champions League spot, a point ahead of Liverpool.