JOHN ARNE RIISE'S 300TH

John Arne Riise will make his 300th Liverpool appearance on Saturday if he plays against Wigan Athletic at Anfield.

The Norwegian international was signed for £4m from AS Monaco in June 2001 after it looked like he would be signing for Fulham. He made his Liverpool debut in the Community Shield at Cardiff playing at left-back in the 2-1 win over Manchester United. For the start of the season proper he was on the bench but came on at half-time in the 2-1 defeat of West Ham United at Anfield. Six days later he was back at his old Monaco stomping ground for the UEFA Super Cup match against Bayern München. This time he was playing in left midfield and he marked his return to the side with his first reds goal in the 3-2 win.

The next game he was back on the bench but saw action after coming on as a half-time substitute for Markus Babbel in the 2-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers. This was Babbel's last match for 15 months after he was diagnosed as having Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Riise made his full Premiership bow that week in the 3-1 home defeat by Aston Villa, with Jerzy Dudek also making his Liverpool debut in this game. The following week he scored his first Premiership goal against Everton at Goodison Park, the last goal in a 3-1 win for the reds. He went on to make 56 appearances in his first season scoring eight goals in total, including a rocket of a shot against Manchester United.

The following season he also made 56 appearances scoring six goals including our first of the season in a 1-0 win at Villa Park. He also scored in a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win against Ipswich Town in the Worthington Cup at Anfield.

For 2003/04 John suffered a drop in form and a run of niggling injuries that saw him make 35 appearances and he went through the season without finding the net.

In 2004/05 Riise swapped his number 18 jersey for the number 6, and he started the season strongly at left-back. He scored his first goal for 18 months as he opened up the scoring in a 2-0 home win against Charlton Athletic. He went on to find the net another seven times, including his first Champions League goal against Bayer Leverkusen and a first minute strike against Chelsea in the Carling Cup Final. That goal against Chelsea was his last of the season, although he did have the chance from the penalty spot against AC Milan in the Champions League Final, but his shot was well saved by the Milan keeper Dida.

Last season Riise found the net on 4 occasions, only once in the Premiership and three times in the FA Cup, including another important strike against Chelsea in the Semi-final. He also banished his penalty ghosts by scoring in the shoot-out against West Ham United in the FA Cup Final.

This season he had a patchy start, but once again found the net against Chelsea in the Community Shield win. He has scored five goals so far this time around, none more memorable than his right footed strike against Barcelona at the Camp Nou that ultimately proved to be decisive as we progressed to the next round of the Champions League by away goals.

In his previous 299 games, he has started in 260 and come off the bench 39 times. He has scored 31 goals and 2 more in penalty shoot outs against Ipswich Town and West Ham United. Rather surprisingly he has only been cautioned a total of 6 times and has never been sent off in a red shirt, and he becomes the 55th player to reach 300 games for Liverpool.