I don’t see Carlos Vela’s first league start being in this game, so I expect we’ll go with the formation we’ve used away in the Champions League before with Nasri and Walcott

I’ve never witnessed as much of a consensus among Arsenal fans about how we’ll fare in a fixture than I have with this one. We’re all pretty much resigned to getting absolutely rinsed and it’s about the same level of confidence as we had before the FA Cup game at OId Trafford last season where we got trashed 4-0. But I’ve not seen us go into a league game resigned to defeat before. It’s fairly sad to see. The players don’t look like they have a lot of confidence in their ability as a team either. Fabregas and van Persie were frustrated with each other on the pitch on Wednesday about misplaced passes, and once again the attack lacked pace, urgency and a cutting edge. Rather than the welcome distraction from the league that we needed to build some morale, we got a frustrating second half performance and we go into the biggest game of the season with two draws and a loss to Stoke in the preceding three fixtures. In contrast, United have won seven of their last nine and have only lost once all season.

We had little chance in this fixture anyway before we lost Adebayor and van Persie, now we go into the game with Bendtner as the only attacking option and it looks like we’re really going to struggle to score, if he plays like he played against Stoke and Fenerbahce. And Nasri, Walcott and Fabregas haven’t shown the best of their form in the last few games. Still, every game is different and there’s always a chance. The last time we had a season like this one we beat United home and away, but back then we had Thierry Henry in the side. Liverpool have shown that United can be beat this season, Hull managed to score three goals against their defence last week and Celtic came to within five points of beating them midweek. If there’s one way to kick start a season, this would be it. The way this season’s gone, you could almost see us stepping our game up and winning on Saturday, and then losing to Villa and City next week to negate the result.

History

In all competitions since the start of the Premiership, home and away, the score stands at Arsenal winning fourteen, United winning eighteen, with nine draws. In the running head to head between Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson, the current score is Arsene 12 – 13 Ferguson, with eight draws. In home games against them, we’ve only won one of the last six.

Team News

Arsenal

With no Adebayor and no van Persie, the question will be how our attack will line up. I don’t see Carlos Vela’s first league start being in this game, so I expect we’ll go with the formation we’ve used away in the Champions League before with Nasri and Walcott supporting the striker from the flanks, which due to lack of alternatives will have to be Bendtner, and three in central midfield with Diaby pushing forward almost as a second forward. Silvestre, Gallas, Walcott, Sagna and Almunia all face late fitness tests for various different ailments, and we won’t really have any idea of who will be risked until the lineup is announced before the game. Eboue is definitely out.

Subs: Fabianski, Silvestre, Djourou, Song, Wilshere, Ramsey, Vela.

Manchester United

Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves and Wes Brown all miss this game through injury. van der Sar was rested against Celtic but should return to the team for this game, as should Rooney and Berbatov who weren’t involved either.