In Adebayor’s absence either Vela or Bendtner will partner van Persie up front, as he isn’t the sort of player that can play as a lone striker. In Fabregas’ absence Song and Denilson will probably be the consistent partnership in central midfield

Well at least we can stop deluding ourselves that there’s an outside chance we’ll challenge for the title now. For a while I had thought if we managed to just about keep in touch, there was always a chance we could catch up. The distance we were/are off the top spot isn’t insurmountable, especially with the top teams faltering as regularly as they are at the moment. The last time one of the ‘Big Four’ won was the sixth of December. Chelsea clawed a similar margin back in the second half of last season, beating us and United in the closing stages of the season to take it to the last day, and we’ve made up gaps as big as this before. But without Fabregas for most of the remainder of the season, even if we had beaten Liverpool, any chance is gone. There’s now precisely zero creativity in a midfield that was already having problems creating chances. Fabregas injured himself diving into a tackle because he could see the possibility of a counter attack if he had won the challenge. That’s what the rest of our midfield won’t do.

Now we have to focus on the battle for fourth. An eight point gap between us and the top, with a midfield containing Diaby, Denilson and Song, is insurmountable unfortunately. Sad really, it could have been a close title race involving all four teams this year, if United win their two games in hand only two points will separate the top three. But we must now look to this game against Villa as a vital one. They fluked a win against a superior West Ham side in their last game thanks to a heavily deflected late winner, and now we’ll only be in the top four on goal difference if we win on Friday. Villa are a very real threat to our top four status and our Champions League qualification. Their defence is more solid, and with Fabregas injured their midfield is much stronger. We’ll have to give everything to get a result, losing is not really an option, but it is looking likely. If we lose and results don’t go our way on Friday, we could be six points outside the top four and only one point ahead of Fulham and Hull. Bah, I don’t want to think about it.

Since Arsene has been in charge, we’ve beaten Villa thirteen times, drawn eight times, and lost three times. They had last beaten us a decade ago before the game a month ago. In recent meetings between Wenger and O’Neill, it’s two wins, three draws and one loss. Since beating us this season, they’ve gone on a decent run of form, taking them to third in the table. They’ve not lost in six, winning four.

Team News

Adebayor misses out through a joke suspension, Fabregas has a medial knee ligament problem and could be out for anywhere up to four months. Bendtner could return to the squad and maybe even start, depending on how well he’s recovered from his knee injury. Toure could also make the squad. Eduardo is out till January, Walcott is out till February and Rosicky is out till March. 2013.

In Adebayor’s absence either Vela or Bendtner will partner van Persie up front, as he isn’t the sort of player that can play as a lone striker. In Fabregas’ absence Song and Denilson will probably be the consistent partnership in central midfield, with Nasri and either Diaby or Eboue slotting in on the wings. Joy.

Subs:Fabianski, Toure, Silvestre, Eboue, Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela.

Aston Villa

Villa’s team has been pretty consistent all season, their only injury problem being Carew. They’ve only used something like fourteen players from the squad in their first team.