Nasri and Toure definitely miss out, but Fabregas, Sagna and Clichy all have a chance of returning to the squad after missing the mid week Champions League action through injury. van Persie and Adebayor were rested and will return to the starting line up

Poor performance last night. It’s the sort of abject showing we’ve become used to this season, luckily it was in a relatively meaningless fixture where the second string couldn’t do too much damage. Now we forget about Europe for a few months and concentrate on the league. We travel north to Middlesbrough, searching for an unthinkable third consecutive victory in the league. The Carling Cup and Champions League results sort of derailed the run of good form we were going for, but slightly shaky times against Wigan aside, this looks like it could be an opportunity to maybe make up some more ground on the top three. Liverpool take on Hull at home, which plenty of clubs, us included, have found to be a tricky fixture this season, and Manchester United are away to Spurs. Obviously Spurs are shite and never do us a favour when we need them to, but they’ve been in decent form under Redknapp and managed to hold United to a draw at their place last season. Chelsea have got West Ham at home, which is a bit of a gimmie, but if Hull and Spurs were to get draws and we beat Middlesbrough, we’d be level on points with United and only six behind Chelsea. And the weekend after, United travel to the World Club Championship and fall another fixture behind, meaning we could even find ourselves briefly, shock horror, in the top three!

We still won’t win the league, but it would be nice to not be an embarrassing distance away from the race. If we somehow manage to win the next four games running up to January 1st, including beating Liverpool, then we’d be in a fairly healthy position title race-wise. Then we can all check news sites two hundred times a day hoping for news on the signings we desperately need, before seeing a news item on .con saying that the cheque book is closed, and we can give up for another year. But if we can put some form together, stay in touch with the top sides, get Walcott and Eduardo back in the squad in the new year, and maybe make one, just ONE midfield signing so that Denilson and Song aren’t first choice, then maybe we have a shot at winning something. But to put our hopes into perspective, we’ve lost as many games as the rest of the top four combined so far this season.

Middlesbrough aren’t in stellar form, they’ve only won three of their last thirteen games, losing six. At the Riverside Stadium this season they’ve won three, drawn two and lost three. They currently find themselves twelfth, only four points clear of the bottom three. In all games against Middlesbrough under Arsene Wenger, we’ve won fourteen times, drawn four times and lost four times. For most of last season Middlesbrough were the only side that had managed to beat us, up until the end of season capitulation when everyone was at it. The 2-1 defeat in this fixture last season came at pretty much the same time last year, but we can’t afford a similar result this time round. Anything other than a win is unacceptable, and three wins in a row would lead up to the Liverpool game next weekend quite nicely.

Team News

Nasri and Toure definitely miss out, but Fabregas, Sagna and Clichy all have a chance of returning to the squad after missing the mid week Champions League action through injury. van Persie and Adebayor were rested and will return to the starting line up. Djourou and Gallas will probably play together at centre back if Sagna is available. Not sure how we’ll line up in midfield, it’ll look a travesty however it ends up really. With our squad as weak as it is, Diaby and Eboue seem the most suited to the flanks, with Denilson and Song battling it out to partner Fabregas. Ludicrous.

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

David Wheater is suspended following his sending off against Hull in their 2-1 defeat last weekend. Gary O’Neill and Mido miss out through injury. The full backs, Hoyte and Taylor, have slight doubts over their fitness but should be available. Southgate’s been using Aliadiere almost as a right winger recently.