Robin Van Persie has come through his fitness tests and will be available for selection, you would think that a fit Van Persie has to start his road to match fitness at some time and could Villa park be the time to bring him back, especially when you lose the quality of Cesc Fabregas

And here we go again, a case of third time lucky perhaps? I certainly hope so that’s for sure. Our fantastic away week in which we brushed aside Wolves and Everton now feels like a distant memory. While the crushing defeats against Tottenham and Braga are still very much on the forefront of Arsenal supporters minds.

This begs the question, what state our the players in at this moment? Have the players cleared the air and are now raring to go in the Midlands or is the pressure weighing heavily over the squad? I guess it must be a little bit of both.

At least Arsenal should feel the home comforts of erm.. playing away. Formerly known as the fortress Emirates has turned into the faulty Emirates, strangely our away form has kept us within two points of leaders Chelsea so far which I still find very strange. We have been brushing teams to one side at home for the last few years so our recent home form leaves me with scratchy head syndrome.

I expect our home and away form to gradually switch sides over the course of the season, hopefully it can stay as it is for at least another week as the Villains will want to continue on their home performance against Manchester United at Villa park a couple of weeks ago.

Luckily for Arsenal, form wide man Marc Albrighton will miss the game due to appendicitis. He has been one of the positives for the home side so far this season so Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy can breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Gunners old boy (quite literally these days) Rob-bear Pires faces Arsenal for the first time in the Premier League. We are still unsure as to whether he will start for Villa or if he will start from the bench. What is for certain is that if he does feature then the away fans will give him another good reception as we did when he played for Villarreal. Please Bobby, do not score against us. Save them for the Spuds.

For Arsenal, captain fantastic misses out due to another hamstring problem so another midfield reshuffle is going to happen, the answers are not definite and we will only know prior to kick off this lunch time what Wenger has in store.

Samir Nasri remains the favourite to fill in for the skipper after providing a masterclass performance at Wembley against the English. Tomas Rosicky is a candidate who then wouldn’t interfere with Samir Nasri’s wide right position thus keeping the continuity and former partnerships intact. The most unlikely would be to push Jack Wilshere into his more natural and offensive position whilst using Song and Denilson as more protective midfielders to a defence that hasn’t been exactly water tight in our last two games. I started that by saying the most unlikely now at the end of that sentence I cannot help but think it would make sense and kept our midfield strong, especially away from home. Even so, I think that three would be unlikely.

Each of those options have their merits and as ever, it will be down to the boss to decide which combination a) make us stronger and b) are better suited to nullifying the opposition, either in terms of possession or stopping Villa from playing.

Wenger’s work isn’t done yet. Robin Van Persie has come through his fitness tests and will be available for selection, you would think that a fit Van Persie has to start his road to match fitness at some time. The only way he can get match sharpness is to.. yes you’ve guessed it, play football matches. Could Villa park be the time to bring him back, especially when you lose the quality of Cesc Fabregas. I expect Chamakh to start the game after being rested to the bench on Tuesday, so Arsene has more selection problems. Does he move Chamakh to a wider position? Which would lose a bit of mobility and pace but could add some strength and extra power in the air. Or he could well keep Van Persie on the bench and start with Chamakh as the lone forward, adding a creative or speedy attacker on the right.

Further back, the Djourou vs Koscielny battle is taking place. Koscielny appears to be higher in Wenger’s pecking order (and my own for that matter) but Djourou has put in some very good performances of late and does not deserve to be dropped as he was last Saturday.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

I would love to see the Rosicky and Nasri combination during the 90 minutes but I have the feeling that Tomas will not get the start he wants, Theo is also in contention for a place possibly in Nasri’s usual position if the Frenchman replaces Cesc in the middle but I am not sure if his form and sharpness is quite there so a place on the bench may be the more likely.

One to watch: Samir Nasri

In the absence of our pass master, we will be looking towards Nasri to provide the spark. While he may not be the footballing quarter back that Cesc is, his technique and dribbling slams down a different quality onto the Arsenal red and white table. It is down to Nasri to really start grabbing games by the scruff of the neck and influencing his team mates when not everything is going according to plan. We have seen Cesc do it. Step forward Samir Nasri. But hopefully everything will go according to plan and we will dictate the game from the first to the last with Nasri being a big part of that.

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 2 (Nasri, Van Persie)

I think our recent goals conceded may force the team to go out with a conservative mindset, I think the team will look to keep its shape and show plenty of determination. If we can do that, just as we did at Everton then the players should be able to wrestle the possession advantage. If that can happen then I believe our quality will shine through. It is time to shake off the nightmares of recent past and show what we are made of. Let us not forget that victory will send us top at the very least for a few hours and given the form of our nearest and not so dearest, it could well be for longer.

Three points please Arsenal.