SOCCER:Fans want to see if the Luis-Carroll partnership can prove an attack from Wonderland, writes MICHAEL WALKER

NOT LONG after Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll made their surprise joint entrance at Anfield in January – arrivals triggered by the departure of Fernando Torres and a cheque for €57 million – someone made the jokey observation that Liverpool’s forward line was now Luis-Carroll. Anfield had an attack from Wonderland.

Of course the word wonder has different definitions, and for all those who saw the potential swooning glory of it in Luis-Carroll, there are those who thought of the €40 million spent on Carroll and wondered if it will ever, could ever, be justified.

They’re still wondering.

Carroll has now played 10 times for Liverpool since he left Newcastle United on the last day of that transfer window. He has scored twice, both goals coming in the same game against Manchester City.

His Anfield start has been hampered by injury and Kenny Dalglish has made the point that Carroll was unable to train “at 100 per cent”, never mind play at that level. Consequently there is a sense that people are waiting for Carroll’s Liverpool career to really start.

Suarez, by contrast, has hit the ground running and scoring. He has five goals in 14 appearances. It should have been six but Suarez smacked that early penalty against Sunderland last Saturday yards over the bar.

It was wasteful and, in part because of that waste, Liverpool drew 1-1 with the Wearsiders. In turn, because of that, because of the relentless scrutiny football clubs and players now endure, there is a thin layer of pressure on Dalglish as Liverpool go to Arsenal this lunchtime. It would be timely for Andy Carroll to deliver a significant performance.

He should not be daunted. Carroll has a good personal omen on which to ponder as it was at Ashburton Grove last November that his young career took a great leap forward. Carroll scored the only goal of the game for Newcastle with a towering header that embarrassed Arsenal’s defence and the Gunners’ then goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Arsène Wenger praised Carroll afterwards, recognising among other attributes, the Geordie’s “charisma”. It was an unusual compliment, yet it was easy to understand Wenger’s view.

Carroll was 21 but the 6ft 4in striker who went to the same Gateshead primary school as Paul Gascoigne was looking like an authentic Newcastle No 9. That is not as simple as it sounds, as Newcastle have discovered since. Carroll had the aura.

This was his purple patch, though given his increasingly colourful off-pitch behaviour, kaleidoscopic patch might be more appropriate. Carroll, the man who broke team-mate Steven Taylor’s jaw, had his car burnt out on Kevin Nolan’s driveway. He was living with Nolan at the time on bail conditions after a confrontation in a Newcastle bar involving a glass. Tyneside teemed with Andy Carroll gossip.

Then, on the morning of the Arsenal game, Carroll and Nolan were the (undeserving) front-page story on the News of the World. It was a measure of the arc of Carroll’s fame.

The previous weekend the pair had been instrumental in Newcastle’s humbling of Sunderland at St James’ Park. It was a 5-1 triumph they ‘celebrated’ with what was reported as “a 14-hour bender”.

There were questions about Carroll’s professionalism, his fitness. But he scored that day, as well as playing superbly all over the pitch; in fact he scored in five of his next seven games as well. One of those goals was against Liverpool. Carroll was making a case for himself to be selected by Fabio Capello, which he was, and to be bought, which he was.

He did not set the record transfer fee for a British footballer. Arguably Torres did.

The €40 million fee took the breath away, but as it stands, Newcastle United’s motivation appears merited. At least financially, it does – what the selling of their local star to Liverpool did for supporters’ morale is another matter.

But there is still wonder in the air and it requires a series of weighty individual displays from Carroll to temper embryonic doubt on Merseyside, beginning at Arsenal. For all Thomas Vermaelen’s qualities, Carroll is three inches taller. Carroll has already dominated Laurent Koscielny and while he does not have Joey Barton to supply pinpoint crosses, Liverpool have signed Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing to do that.

“Pre-season has helped me get over all the niggles that I have had,” Carroll said after Sunderland. “Now it is a case of pushing forward and keeping myself fit. I have got to show what I can do.”

Dalglish has acquired the ammunition Carroll needs. The man can cause such a disturbance that either he or Suarez should profit. Luis-Carroll: If they do it today, it might be evidence that Liverpool can unseat Arsenal over the course of the season.

New Home a logical move for Keane

IT IS expected that Robbie Keane will make his debut for LA Galaxy in their romantically-titled stadium, Home Depot Center, tonight against San Jose Earthquakes.

That is a sentence Keane cannot have anticipated being written perhaps as long ago as July. But the 31-year-old received his American visa on Wednesday and is about to line up for his tenth senior club.

We remain snobbish about the so-what MLS and still puzzled as to why Keane would choose to join it. You probably need to be inside his head and his home to understand it.

But a player's career can be determined from angles we do not always appreciate. What were Keane's serious other options? He finished last season away from White Hart Lane (again) at West Ham. On the day they were relegated, at Wigan, Keane was a substitute.

To us LA Galaxy looks an odd destination; to him it may be less odd than sitting on the bench at Wigan, on loan at a team about to be relegated.

Talking of oddness and West Ham, Scott Parker won the Footballer of the Year award last season. Parker had a good season in trying circumstances but it would not be too difficult to make a case that Nemanja Vidic, for one, had a better season.

Parker is now on the market but it says something that, until Wednesday, West Ham had not received a single bid for him.

Then QPR, about to be taken over on Thursday, offered a reported €4.6 million. West Ham declined this bid, as you would expect. Parker will surely hope that the offer at least rekindles his reputation because he will not want to go from one relegation battle to another. Like Robbie Keane, Parker must be interested in the topic of options and reality.