Wenger has no sympathy for Liverpool's strike force loss

(Reuters) - Liverpool lost Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling in successive summers but Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has no sympathy for the club who refused to sell the Uruguayan to the Gunners in 2013. Arsenal welcome the Merseyside club on Monday for a high-profile fixture at the Emirates Stadium and the Reds' rejection of the Gunners' offer of 40 million plus one pound for Suarez still seems to rankle Wenger. "Liverpool can make their own decisions. They refused to sell us Suarez so I cannot feel too much sympathy for them," the 65-year-old Frenchman said. Liverpool scored more than 100 goals in the 2013-14 season, largely thanks to Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and Sterling. However, with two of the prolific trio having left the club and a third out injured, Wenger acknowledged the challenge his counterpart Brendan Rodgers faces. "Let's remember two years ago with Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling they scored over a hundred goals. To score more than 100 goals in the Premier League, you need special quality to do that," Wenger said. "Sterling was part of that. I personally rate Raheem Sterling. We will see that in the longer term. He's a quality player. "But they bought (Roberto) Firmino. We will see what he will produce. He is a similar player," he added. Liverpool have brought in 32.5 million pound ($51 million) man Christian Benteke to ease the goal-scoring burden on the team but Wenger is confident of keeping him quiet. "We played a cup final against Benteke and we managed to deal with it. Then again, every game is a new challenge and we have to show that we can do it," Wenger said. "We have dealt with him in a positive way before." (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)