David Price/Getty ImagesArsene Wenger will only have 24 hours to wheel and deal before the transfer window closes following the Gunners' Wednesday match versus Liverpool.

As it has been for most of January with the focus being on the transfer window, it's all too easy to forget that Arsenal have an important match in the race for the top four on Wednesday night. At times, the matches have felt like a sideshow to the rumours and hopes that Arsene Wenger will strengthen the squad.

With just two days left of the transfer window, the Arsenal manager has a large and important distraction called Liverpool. One the reasons that made Arsenal fans so frustrated that the squad wasn't added to early on during the transfer window was that there was a relentless run of games with midweek and weekend matches back-to-back until the end of the month. While there should be others in the club who can scout and work on potential new signings, the preparation for matches was always likely to be used as a reason for not being active in the transfer market.

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It's a slightly difficult situation for Wenger because, as a fan, you want him making sure the team are fully ready for matches. However, while he's admitted that the squad could be short number-wise up front, and has let three players go out on loan so the squad is smaller, surely there should have been more effort to get a new player or two into the club.

Having extra matches in January shouldn't be an excuse for not being active enough in the transfer market; it should be an extra reason for hastening any business to keep the squad fresh in a tough time of the season. After the Liverpool game, Arsenal will have 24 hours to get any business done. Strange things can happen to managers, chairmen and players on deadline day, but if Arsenal are relying on it to get deals done slightly cheaper, that feels horribly risky.

While the Liverpool match can be seen as a distraction from transfer business, by leaving it late to get anything done, the transfer business now has the potential to be a distraction from the Liverpool match. There seems to be a sense of some fans wanting to get to deadline day so as to finally know if Wenger does add to the squad, but before that, there is a vital game that Arsenal could really do with winning.

I have almost constantly been looking at who is above Arsenal, and trying to work out what the team need to do to catch them, however Liverpool have snuck up behind the Gunners in the table. This means that an Arsenal defeat on Wednesday brings the Merseyside club towards the top four fight and pulls Arsenal further away from it.

Having scored eight goals in two games, and having won at Anfield earlier in the season, Arsenal should be able to put any transfer rumour distractions out of the way and play well on Wednesday. The squad should be relatively fresh after the rotation at Brighton, however it's hard to know how Liverpool will respond to the defeat to Oldham. They struggled with balls into the box against the League One side, so while it might not be Arsenal's usual style to be more direct, it could be beneficial to use the good form and increasing strength of Olivier Giroud to cause problems to the Liverpool defence.

Whatever the result, a lot of fans will immediately consider its ramifications for any late transfer deals. Win, lose or draw, it shouldn't affect Arsenal's need to enter the transfer market. There is plenty of room for improvement in the squad, but with the distraction of an important match, I doubt anything will happen before deadline day.

Once that hyped day, which is often underwhelming for Arsenal fans, has come and gone, at least the distraction of transfer stories won't get in the way of focusing on the football.

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