Walcott and Podolski will not start out wide together, it just will not happen. Arsene will want to win the all important midfield battle so I expect Santi to be pushed back to the left with hopefully (prays to Dennis) Rosicky coming back in to the number 10 role. Ramsey and Arteta have formed a very good relationship in the engine room so I do not expect that to be broken up which could mean a place for

How many times have you heard the following.

‘Tottenham could find themselves 7 points behind Arsenal when they next play?’

Too many times I’d imagine and I do not like it one bit. It has been repeated so many times that there is almost an assumption that turning up in our next two fixtures will yield six points, that is simply not the case. It might be because of this reason that I have gone the complete opposite way but I am feeling rather concerned about the game tonight. While vitally important to our CL chances, you get a sense that it is crunch time for the Toffees and there is something about a team with nothing to lose going away from home against the odds at Unibet here.

I was listening to David Moyes and some of the Everton players and it reminds me of the first fight in Rocky 3. Everton are training in a cold gloomy gym, sweating blood daily while we are taking photographs with young blondes when we should be training.

I realise that this is totally coming from the rather warped part of my brain and I’d quite happily be ridiculed post match should we comfortably despatch the Merseysiders tonight but I am instinctively pulling up my defensive shutters. I don’t feel confident.

We should see a few changes to the line up from the Norwich last gasp victory.

Lukas Fabianski is injured once more which must make him feel as sick as a parrot. Whenever the fella gets a run of games and is playing well, he gets crocked. There has been a lot of talk about Szczesny coming back in but would it be a surprise to see Mannone start? considering he had been on the bench for the last few games. Our keeper is going to have to be strong in between the sticks because Everton will be trying to get the most out of set pieces, especially with the afro one back in their team. Hopefully it will be Szczesny though because even if he wasn’t very strong from crosses in his last few games, he is still a better option than Vito Mannone in the air.

Walcott and Podolski will not start out wide together, it just will not happen. Arsene will want to win the all important midfield battle so I expect Santi to be pushed back to the left with hopefully (prays to Dennis) Rosicky coming back in to the number 10 role. Ramsey and Arteta have formed a very good relationship in the engine room so I do not expect that to be broken up which could mean a place for Wilshere on the bench. Not a bad option ey?

It would make sense if Theo Walcott started out on the right to counter the attacking threat of Baines for Everton. You would expect Baines to apply his own personal handbrake with Walcott on his side of the pitch. In fact given Walcott’s instant contribution on the weekend, I think it might be a big night for him if we are to play well.

Monreal should come back into the side at left back and hopefully alongside the BFG with skippidy skipper back on the bench, sorry Tommy.

Interesting to hear Arsene play down Giroud’s first half display whilst bigging up Poldolski but I do not see Arsene making that change. Giroud may actually be rather important tonight. Whenever we play Everton at home, they press us high up the pitch and stop us from passing from the back. I used to have my heart in my mouth when Alex Song was messing around with the ball rather than playing it early whilst two or more Everton players were snapping at his heals. Mikel Arteta will be one of the targets this evening so we may well see a longer game from us today. Playing goalkicks to Sagna but mainly Giroud to win the first ball towards the likes of Santi and Theo. Lukas isn’t going to be able to play that role but the hunky Frenchman will. I’d be shocked if Giroud didn’t start as centre forward. I’m all for giving Lukas another go in attack but just not tonight.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up:

Whatever happens tonight you just hope that the assistant referee does not try and make correct decisions and should instead opt for the referee not seeing an incident. It should give Tony Gale, Alan Hansen and company a reason to sleep happy after the game. Would love Arsenal to score an offside goal to win the game with the referee overruling the offside flag from his assistant because he was further away. I would love to listen to our ‘expert’ pundits backtrack faster than a Michael Jackson moonwalk. Anyway, I think I should just let it go now. I’m trying.

You know how we have been saying we have x amount of cup finals until the end? Well that was exaggerated but this game really is the type of game you’d expect to see in a cup final match. Everton are not going to allow us to play the game we want, they are going to be very, very committed, expect a few tough challenges (careful Santi) and I expect them to play to win and not just hold for a draw.

If we want to win the game tonight then the whole team will have to fight from start to finish. Basically everyone will need to put in the kind of shift that Ramsey put in on Saturday.

Let us do this.