Laurent Koscielny will return to the team which will thankfully push Alex Song further forward into the position he needs to be in. Koscielny will resume his partnership with Per Mertesacker and it will be down to Arsene to decide to start Andre Santos or Kieran Gibbs. Arsene would have been able to keep a close eye on their progress during the last week as both would have

It has felt like a long while since the Arsenal last took to the field. That memory wasn’t a nice memory to end the domestic football and then to jump into the international week but the length of time away from the focus has dampened the pain just a notch.

I usually do not know what to expect post internationals as history tells us that Wenger’s momentum teams have often stalled after having their collective engines switched off for any length of time. Having already dropped more than enough points at this stage of the season, we cannot afford to do anything but hit the Ashburton ground running.

Opposition

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce may have some sympathy for Arsene Wenger as his team as well as himself are going through a difficult time. They have spent plenty of money and have many new faces to attempt to integrate as quickly as possible which has made their results suffer.

Sunderland have only managed six points from their first seven games, which is their worst start to a season since 2005-06. There have been calls for Steve Bruce to be sacked so the opposition must be feeling under as much pressure to ourselves right now. Hopefully that can work in our favour.

Goalkeeper & Defence

Laurent Koscielny will return to the team which will thankfully push Alex Song further forward into the position he needs to be in. Koscielny will resume his partnership with Per Mertesacker and it will be down to Arsene to decide to start Andre Santos or Kieran Gibbs. Arsene would have been able to keep a close eye on their progress during the last week as both would have been at the club while many faces would have been representing their countries.

Bacary Sagna’s right back spot will be the obvious focus this afternoon and all eyes are likely to be glared on youngster Carl Jenkinson. He will have to expect to be targeted over the next few weeks so an impressive start this afternoon could do wonders to his confidence.

As many have already said, let us not forget that this youngster is one of us, a real Gooner living the dream and he needs our support and encouragement regardless of his performance. That could be the difference from a confident display and a shaky 90 minutes.

Midfield

The midfield three pretty much picks itself now at least until Abou Diaby gets the chance to stake his claim. Alex Song, Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey should have had enough games to have developed an understanding together. I am hoping to see a more creative spark from the three and hopefully we can have one of them taking turns to support our three forward players.

Attack

Our front three should remain the same. You get the feeling that they are still trying to adjust and adapt together. Gervinho has plenty of ability but as yet to find consistency, his link up play with his team mates has blown hot and cold. I suspect that our attack will improve as the understanding and link up play matures and improves. I feel as if Gervinho needs a goal and a good performance, he looks very much a confidence player so the quicker he feels settled and confident the better for our end product in the final third.

Injuries

We are down to our long term injuries and hopefully two of those will be back with the squad shortly. Abou Diaby and Thomas Vermaelen should be back in contention over the next few weeks while Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna remain on the treatment table for the longer term.

Injury List

Abou Diaby, Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere, Bacary Sagna

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

You would be very surprised to see anything but this line up give or take a Santos for a Gibbs. The usual applies to this game. We want to see a solid, hard working team display both offensively and defensively but the speed of the passing and the tempo of the game usually decides how an Arsenal home game will turn out. If we can start the game quickly and find our rhythm early then we should expect a victory but if we do not click which has been the case for a new team with so many components, then it could be a more difficult afternoon.

After the refereeing decisions in last season’s fixture, we deserve a bit of good fortune from the footballing gods. An early deflected goal or an own goal early in the game for us would be what we deserve.

Come on you Gunners.