NNERS WILL FEAR EL NINO Jimmy Rice 01 April 2008 Arsenal will be worried about how to stop goal machine Fernando Torres, according to Reds boss Rafa Benitez. El Nino has so far amassed 28 goals in his debut season, including four in the Champions League. Now Benitez is backing him to fire Liverpool past Arsenal and into the semi-finals of the Champions League. "Arsenal will know that Torres is on fire and is scoring goals and will be a problem for them," Benitez told a press conference at Melwood. "Fernando also knows that if we play well he will score goals, so he will work hard for the team. As this is a European competition he wants to play well and score goals. "He has a great mentality and is very competitive, but against the top sides he must be focused and have confidence in himself because against the best defenders it will be more difficult." Torres is not only bearing down on Anfield's goalscoring records, he's also out-stripping anything he achieved during his time with Atletico Madrid. Benitez puts this down to Liverpool's formation. "In Spain he was playing on his own up front. He was going to wide areas and was working hard to receive the ball and go against defenders," he said. "Here he has Steven Gerrard, Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt behind him, so he can play higher. That is the reason why he has scored more goals." Meanwhile, Benitez has confirmed Javier Mascherano will start at the Emirates on Wednesday after his league suspension. He said: "Javier will be available for the first leg, he will start this game. "He was playing well before the suspension and there is no doubt he will be important for us at Arsenal." Either Alvaro Arbeloa or Fabio Aurelio also looks set to return after both were rested for the Merseyside derby. Benitez said: "We wanted to protect one of them, but I will not make that decision public at the moment." --

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