Surprisingly Arsene said that van Persie would start the game. That is surprising for a couple of reasons. Firstly because van Persie has not been at his sharpest for five games. I would say Wigan away on the 3rd December was his last top display since then his touch has deserted him and his influence has diminished. He has probably never played this frequently since his professional career started and it looks like he needs a rest but is he not resting because of Alan Shearer’s record? That would seem highly unlikely but surely QPR at

Time is not on my side today so I am going to have to make this short and probably not very sweet but hey.

After the disappointment against Wolves, no other result other than an Arsenal victory will do. It may well be cliche but these really are the types of games that we must win if we are to gain at least a top four place by closing time in March.

Surprisingly Arsene said that van Persie would start the game. That is surprising for a couple of reasons. Firstly because van Persie has not been at his sharpest for five games. I would say Wigan away on the 3rd December was his last top display since then his touch has deserted him and his influence has diminished. He has probably never played this frequently since his professional career started and it looks like he needs a rest but is he not resting because of Alan Shearer’s record? That would seem highly unlikely but surely QPR at home would be a more appropriate place to stick our top scorer on the bench instead of at Craven Cottage.

Perhaps Arsene is hoping to win the game in the first half and not allow his players to ease off the gas like we did during midweek. Then he can remove van Persie on 65-70 minutes. That is easier said than done. We haven’t won a Premier League game by half time at the Emirates for a long time.

In whichever game Chamakh starts in, I hope he has Gervinho and Walcott either side of him. That will make a big difference to him, in fact van Persie might not have such an impressive goalscoring record if he had to play in the same team’s that Chamakh has had most of his minutes so far this season.

I expect Aaron Ramsey to come back into the team, Theo Walcott will start wide right of van Persie and I am guessing that it is Gervinho’s turn to wrap up warm on the Arsenal bench, so we could have a space open for Andrey Arshavin once more.

We still do not have much room for defensive manoeuvre so it might be the same back line until Bacary Sagna returns although I am sure one or two of them could do with a rest.

Hopefully last weeks early complacency has been tied up into a bin bag and dumped while our luck in front of goal improves a great deal from that Wolves game. If we can do that and work hard as a team then we should get what we deserve.

Something a little different before I get ready for the game. Arsenal Croatia used the Come On You Gunners song and created a new video. Very classy and far more impressive than my attempt.

Back later.