Aston Villa’s main weapons will be from set pieces where they will be looking to take advantage of our current lack of height. The team will also have to be switched on to the counter attack if we are to push forward and take the game to Villa

Hold onto your hats Gooners, we have now entered the fixtures of death, it is not quite make or break but it is pretty much as close as we are going to get. This run of four fixtures will test the team mentally and physically, it is time for every player in wearing the Arsenal badge to puff our their chests and give in the words of our great manager.. absolutely everything.

Aston Villa competed at the Emirates, did all they could to stop us until they got well and truly Cesc’d. Aston Villa are challenging for fourth position and will be fighting tooth and nail to get a result against us.

I have been hearing plenty of people stating that Arsenal have a good record at Villa park which is disturbing me somewhat. Too many people are saying that Villa are not playing well and Arsenal will win. Obviously I would like that to be the case but it will be a very tough game, I have no doubt about that.

Alex Song and Emmanuel Eboue will not be included in the squad and Abou Diaby is still out with injury so that gives me a slight concern. We will lack the physical power from Song and Diaby and will have to play with a smaller midfield trio. Cesc Fabregas, Denilson are likely to start probably alongside Aaron Ramsey who has not long returned from injury.

Without the drive of Diaby or the strength of Song the midfield will have to be technically very sharp and look to move the ball around quickly. Cesc is in good form right now and we have to hope that he is only getting warmed up. When Cesc plays well, Arsenal usually play well.

Our bench should look pretty healthy for the first time in a few weeks. Nicklas Bendtner should be part of the squad for the first time since our 3-0 victory against Tottenham. It is highly unlikely that he will start after being out for so long, so I expect him to take a seat alongside Nasri, Walcott and Sol Campbell.

Since moving back to the left side of the attack, Andrey Arshavin has looked more influential, getting more involved in the build up and looking more of an overall threat. With Tomas Rosicky likely to continue in the side I would like to see both wide players playing on the opposite side. Rosicky is a better player coming inside where as I think Arshavin can still be direct from the right. I am sure the fluidity of the attackers will allow that switch to happen at some point during the ninety minutes.

Aston Villa’s main weapons will be from set pieces where they will be looking to take advantage of our current lack of height. The team will also have to be switched on to the counter attack if we are to push forward and take the game to Villa. If we can deal with both of those threats then we can beat Aston Villa.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

We certainly have the quality to beat Villa and hopefully we can but I have a feeling that tonight may just end up level with the home side scoring a late equaliser as they did last season. Needless to say, I hope we can go out there and stuff them, it would provide the team with the much needed momentum for Sunday’s big game against Manchester United.