Abou Diaby has been playing deeper this season, assisting Alex Song in most of the defensive duties, when his natural instincts are to get forward and get shots away

At the start of the season us Gooners look forward to certain games more than others. Manchester United, Chelsea and the north London derby are the obvious stand outs but one fixture in particular has plenty of unfinished business. My first league game of last season ended with a spirited Hull City victory at the Emirates, Hull and Phil Brown left London with plenty of pats on the back from the Arsenal faithful, they came and were bold and brave and it paid off. A lacklustre Arsenal attitude mixed in with a failure to deal with set pieces saw us slump to defeat.

We got our revenge in Yorkshire later on in the season, a controlled left foot finish by Samir Nasri sticks out in my memory.

It was the FA Cup tie with Hull City on the 17th March 2009 that will be the game that will have fuelled the fire for this afternoons game. I have nothing against the town or even the players for that matter, minus Paul McShane who almost severed Alex Hleb’s leg off whilst playing for Sunderland. Phil Brown and Brian Horton are the reason for the ill feeling between the two clubs. The pair snarled and intimidated our manager from the touchline like a couple of school playground bullies. Then when they lost the game a story about Cesc Fabregas spitting was invented. The media swarmed all over Cesc and the club until the charges were dropped.

It is time to give dumb and dumber the beating they deserve, hopefully complacency will not be an issue as it was for the team last season. Hull City do have one advantage over us and that is rest, Arsenal played their second away match on Wednesday whilst the Hull City players were resting their limbs. Cesc Fabregas is not able to make the squad due to a hamstring injury that he suffered at Turf Moor. Denilson is back and is likely to return to the team with Diaby pushed further forward in the position that he enjoys so much.

Abou Diaby has been playing deeper this season, assisting Alex Song in most of the defensive duties, when his natural instincts are to get forward and get shots away or dribble past defenders, he will be hoping that he is asked to fill that attacking midfield role today.

Diaby, Song and Denilson is a tough midfield trio but it may lack a bit of cleverness with the pass. Wenger has the option of either starting Ramsey in Cesc’s position or using Nasri in an attacking central role.

I expect Eboue to give Sagna a rest and to provide the team with more attacking width from the fullback position, if not then Eboue will come in on the right of the attack.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

The players really need to give everything in this game and come away with the three points, a good performance would also be important. We really have to string some victories together to keep on the coattails of Chelsea and Manchester United.

I expect the players to have too much for Hull City, hopefully we can start on the front foot, play at a high tempo and look to create early chances. Eduardo is more than due a goal and as he is fresh I expect him to start the game probably from a left wing position or possibly from the center forwards position.

We will win the game in midfield and pick off Hull as the game goes on.