It is important that Arsene is able to find the right balance because many players will need pulling out at vital times whilst we have many top quality players on the sidelines all in need of minutes on the pitch. There is talk of Robin being rested for this but as he recently spent a good 70 minutes on the bench against Stoke City, I do not see him being rested so quickly.

The Champions league returns tonight and the feeling has much improved since our fantastic victory at Stamford Bridge, well it certainly has for me. We are in a superb position in our group and a victory against Marseille will all but put us through into the knock out rounds.

Arsene has a bit of head scratching to do, if he has not already done so. Minus our longer term absentees, we have a rather strong squad to select from and after a tough, full throttle match against one of our rivals, Wenger may want to rest a few weary legs but we have been here before.

Last season we were coasting through the group, sitting pretty at the top with a cigar on and then Arsene rotated in Donesk and we were subsequently Eduardo’d. A Titus Shambles followed in Braga and we dropped down to second place in our group which then gave UEFA the opportunity to create a lucrative double match randomly draw us against Barcelona.

It is important that Arsene is able to find the right balance because many players will need pulling out at vital times whilst we have many top quality players on the sidelines all in need of minutes on the pitch. There is talk of Robin being rested for this but as he recently spent a good 70 minutes on the bench against Stoke City, I do not see him being rested so quickly. Gervinho was rested for much of the first leg in France so it may well be Theo Walcott’s turn to recharge those afterburners. Andrey Arshavin may get his chance to show what he can do after his decisive performance against Bolton in the Carling cup.

Arsene Wenger’s comments about Arshavin’s future being in the middle was interesting and I wonder if that meant he had decided no longer to play him in wide positions or just that his best position would be centrally. With the team doing so well right now and in particularly Aaron Ramsey, I do not see Arshavin being granted a place in his favourite position unless it is the Carling Cup so I suspect that Arshavin will start from the left if he is called upon allowing Gervinho to play in the position that he starred in all last season for Lille on the right side of attack.

Arsene Wenger purposefully yanked up the handbrake in the Stade Velodrome, asking his midfielders to protect the team from the counter attack. Many people criticise Arsene Wenger for not being flexible with his tactics but that was another example of the little tweaks that he frequently makes which are often ignored. Wenger has said that he has never understood the difference between home and away so it will be interesting to see if a pragmatic stance will be taken tonight, I highly doubt it. Mainly because the team must be bursting with self belief after the weekend result and he will want his players to be able to express themselves offensively.

I assume that we will see a similar defensive stance from Didier Deschamps’s team as we saw in the away match and it will be down to us to break through that, yet the boys will have to be aware that when the ball is surrendered, we will have to be alert at the danger of Marseille’s pace.

I expect there to be a little bit of rotation at the back especially now that we have Thomas Vermaelen back and ready to destroy opposition attackers. One of Koscielny or Mertesacker will probably make way. I know who I would prefer but Arsene has a habit of going the opposite of what I am thinking and then proving me wrong so we shall see.       

A victory along with a clean bill of health is what I want any other positives will be a bonus.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up