The most interesting selection for Arsene Wenger will be who to play as the defensive shield in the Arsenal midfield. Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong are both suspended whilst Abou Diaby is sitting out injured. With Denilson out on loan, we are looking incredibably short in that area for today’s game. According to the very reliable Jamie Sanderson from Young Guns blog, young French midfielder Francis Coquelin will start the game as the defensive midfielder. I thought we might see Johan Djourou return to the position that he started at as a youngster. If Coquelin starts the game then he is likely to be

One point from two league fixtures, a difficult midweek game played and a depleted midfield, not only depleted but losing our only available defensive midfielders is never the best preparation for a Manchester United side at Old Trafford who have already flown out of the traps at top speed.

A daunting prospect for Arsenal fans around the world. I often fancy us to beat anyone and everyone but even I had major doubts about us coming away from Old Trafford without our tails tucked firmly between our legs.

Well that was until I witnessed our fighting performance in Italy against a good Udinese side. There was a wonderful fighting spirit that was on display on Wednesday night and to be honest, it has been there since the first game of the season. Playing at Manchester United is a different story to playing against Udinese but I have a feeling that the players will really dig in and pull out a big performance. Without the steel of Alex Song or the craft of Jack Wilshere, it may prove a bridge slightly too far but I am certainly not going to write us off even as depleted as we are.

The most interesting selection for Arsene Wenger will be who to play as the defensive shield in the Arsenal midfield. Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong are both suspended whilst Abou Diaby is sitting out injured. With Denilson out on loan, we are looking incredibly short in that area for today’s game.

According to the very reliable Jamie Sanderson from Young Guns blog, young French midfielder Francis Coquelin will start the game as the defensive midfielder. Which is exciting yet daunting. Coquelin impressed whilst on loan at FC Lorient, although the versatile midfielder often feature on the right side of midfield or defence.

I thought we might see Johan Djourou return to the position that he started at as a youngster. If Coquelin starts the game then he is likely to be joined by Tomas Rosicky who was so impressive as a second half substitute in midweek and Aaron Ramsey. Whilst being a very technical midfield, it does lack height and physical strength, so it will be interesting to see how they do against the battling qualities of Anderson, Fletcher and company.

I am very disappointed that we will not have the offensive unpredictability of Gervinho out wide. Manchester United tend to flood the central areas and allow us space out wide because we usually have creative passers in wide areas. Gervinho would have given the Manchester United side something to think about as he commits players and draws other players to him.

It is likely that Andrey Arshavin will be the man to replace Gervinho out wide. Arshavin scored a rocket strike at Old Trafford a couple of years ago and we could do with something like that again. I cannot remember the last time Arshavin influenced a game from start to finish. Although you could argue that it is not his game to dominate a whole game. His game still remains very inconsistent right now.

I hope Arsene doesn’t hold back the likes of Ryo Miyaichi if the likes of Arshavin are not contributing positively to the game.

There was talk of Bacary Sagna missing the match through illness, let’s hope that is not the case. Traore would give us a better balance down the left as well as an extra offensive threat, but we badly need Sagna’s defensive quality at a place like old Trafford where their biggest threat is often from wide areas.

Expect plenty of attention to be paid to Carl Jenkinson from the likes of Ashley Young, Nani and company.

The odds are stacked against us to get a result today and I hope that goes in our favour. Today is unlikely to be about individuals and more about the team. Defensively we are going to have to be very solid and hope that we can be clinical when a chance presents itself.

I am sure that I am not alone in saying that I would take a draw now. Some more of the fighting spirit from Wednesday and that or maybe more could be possible.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up