I expect the unpredictable maestro to waltz straight back into the team but luckily for him it will be on the left instead of the central striking position. I have a hunch that Bendtner and Arshavin will be on the same wavelength

Burnley football club could well be coming to North London at a bad time. If they want to blame somebody for that, then may I suggest Stoke City or more accurately Ryan Shawcross, but I am not here to talk about him, his name gives me the beginning of a headache so I try and divert away from that before I get a full blown migraine.

My point was that Arsenal could well be fired up for this one, the team will have many reminders of a certain young talented Welshman around the ground from banners, T-shirts and I am sure, plenty of songs.

One Song that will certainly not be played will be Alex. He begins a two game suspension for racking up a collection of ten yellow cards. Some could argue that the timing of the ban could work in our favour given some of our tricky fixtures amongst this run but with the stop start nature of the season, it is rather difficult to predict what is truly classed as an easy game until the game is in full swing.

While we lose two important midfielder’s, we gain another two in the Nicklas of time. Denilson who missed Stoke with an injury of his own will almost certainly replace Song in front of the back four whilst in form man Abou Diaby is back to replace Song’s strength and height and can hopefully add some attacking guile to his long and leggy frame.

Andrey Arshavin completes the two steps back and three steps forward routine after playing 45 minutes for Russia during the midweek international fixtures.

I expect the unpredictable maestro to waltz straight back into the team but luckily for him it will be on the left instead of the central striking position. I have a hunch that Bendtner and Arshavin will be on the same wavelength. Some of my recent hunches have began to come off so I am hoping to continue that, not that I gain anything from it, apart from a little wry grin to myself.

Nicklas Bendtner has scored three in his last three games for club and country, two fabulous headers into the far corner in a week leaves me feeling excited. Bendtner has added another string to our bow, we can now remain hopeful that something can still happen when the ball is nudged to Sagna on the right, near the opposition penalty area.

I am expecting Bendtner to add to his tally later on this afternoon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dane latching onto a Arshavin slid pass and then hit a shot across Jensen into the corner of the net. That is my wild prediction of the day.

I suppose the tricky calls for Wenger will be down the right side of the pitch. Sagna, Eboue and Walcott. Those were the same queries for the last game at the Emirates.

Wenger has already ruled out Sol Campbell so Mikel Silvestre is likely to re forge his partnership with Vermaelen. I am wondering if Campbell is not really injured, just Arsene managing his squad around certain games. Who knows.

Sol cannot play two games a week right now, at least Wenger has given that impression and you’d like to think that Silvestre should be able to step in against Burnley at home and produce a good performance but with a game as big as Porto coming up, Arsene may want Campbell in the side.

One to watch: Nicklas Bendtner

Nick was my choice last week against Stoke City and it was his towering header that got Arsenal back into the game when we really needed it, I am going with Bendtner once more this week. His recent goals will have catapulted his confidence through the roof. Bendtner has a little bit of revenge to extract on Burnley. Last season Bendtner missed a host of clear chances in the Carling Cup clash between the two sides and Arsenal were dumped out of the competition. Burnley keeper Brian Jensen who is also Danish had an inspired evening which left Bendtner frustrated. A year later we witness a very different proposition and hopefully he can show everyone the huge strides that he has made in the last 18 months or so.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

I have gone with a very attacking looking side because I am using the Sunderland fixture at home as a template. Eboue and Walcott terrorised the opposition that day and Wenger might want to have a go at that again against the team with the worst away record in the league.

I am hoping that Walcott can have a good game after the criticism for his international display. I have a good feeling that Theo will step up to the plate and cause Burnley problems.

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

I am hoping for an early goal to settle the nerves, if we can get that then we should go on to win the game comfortably.

Ten fixtures remain, I want the players to do it for themselves, for Aaron, for Arsene and for the fans.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS.