Marouane Chamakh could start the game and if he has Gervinho and Walcott either side of him then I have a hunch that he will score at least once and play well. I was rather bullish about this on twitter and I am sure that I will get laughed at if proven otherwise but Chamakh has yet to have his chance alongside our two wide forwards who have contributed so much

There is a sense of mid season squeaky bum time this season, especially during this busy festive period. The amount of games in such a short space of time seems to have caught up with all the clubs congested towards the top of the league.

Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham have all dropped points that they would have hoped to have taken all three from.

Two days break after so many games does not leave much room for physical recovery and we have plenty of tired legs in our squad due to the list of injured players we currently have on our treatment table.

How we could have done with the likes of Diaby, Wilshere and any of our four full backs, they would have helped freshen up the rest of the team but as it is we have to push players to their limits, especially our defensive minded players.

With Thomas Vermaelen now the new injured player on the block I expect Ignasi Miquel to fill in for him at left back but apart from that I certainly do not expect anymore rotation at the back. Mikel Arteta must be in contention for a rest after starting in every league game since he joined the club. Both Alex Song and Aaron Ramsey have had recent rest so either Francis Coquelin or Tomas Rosicky could fill that position depending if Arsene wanted to start more defensively or offensively from the outset.

I would be very surprised to see Robin van Persie starting the game once again, as important as he is for the short term, surely his longer term fitness is far more important. While he will be absent from the Leeds United game, it will count for very little if he pulls up with a bad injury today after playing one game too many.

Marouane Chamakh could start the game and if he has Gervinho and Walcott either side of him then I have a hunch that he will score at least once and play well. I was rather bullish about this on twitter and I am sure that I will get laughed at if proven otherwise but Chamakh has yet to have his chance alongside our two wide forwards who have contributed so much to van Persie’s goal tally so far this season.

I cannot imagine too many more changes than that although Arsene has been talking up the contributions of Andrey Arshavin in our last game. Yossi Benayoun is also another fresh option if the manager chooses to select him.

Our last two home games have been tight matches so it will be interesting to see if playing away from home helps us or exposes our lack of sharpness. Fulham are missing some key forward players so it may well be a defensive display from the home side.

Given the amount of games of late and the collection of injuries, an away victory would be tremendous. Three points and a chance to rest legs for the cup would put us in a great position but the hard work tonight is still to come.

Fingers crossed our unity and spirit can get us the victory we want.

COYG.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up