If Bendtner does start what of Lukas Podolski? If he plays wide left then who will Arsene play on the right. We know that Arsene avoids playing three direct attackers due to team balance but is that purely defensive balance or creative balance? If only the former then a deep duo of Arteta and

Happy New year Gooners, now that the Christmas and New Years celebrations have been tucked away for another year we can get back to concentrating on the Arsenal, I am sure many of you haven’t stopped for a second.

We are back on home turf today after collecting six points out of six away from home over the festive period, today we face managerless Cardiff City which is a fixture we ought to be coming away from with three more points tucked under our belts. It is difficult to know how the away side will approach the game but I can’t imagine them coming out with an open game trying to score first, they are more likely to have men behind the ball and not give us any room to play. As ever in these types of games it will be down to us to break them down.

We had a number of injury question marks before today, I think we have a better idea of who is available now. Mesut Özil is again out of the squad, Aaron Ramsey will continue to be out with his knee problem and now they will be joined by Kieran Gibbs who came off late at Newcastle. Oliver Giroud is also missing with a foot problem but I am wondering if he like Ozil is having a nice mid season break before going again in the second half of the season.

Monreal, Vermaelen, Wilshere, Rosicky and Walcott were all doubts but they should all be available for the match day squad as they have trained.

This feels like a Hull City at home moment, the time for some rotation due to the number of games the club have played in recent weeks, some of that change as explained above will be enforced due to recent injuries but with the Tottenham game coming up in the FA Cup you’d assume that the squad will be fully used over the next two games.

I’ve just been looking at my line up graphic trying to work out what team we are likely to see this afternoon but after a while of moving players around I realised that I just didn’t have a clue. Even with the injuries there are so many permutations and most depend on how the manager views things.

For example, I assumed that Nicklas Bendtner would simply replace Oliver Giroud as centre forward but given that it is now January and the player would be free to talk to other clubs. If Bendtner is still on the move then it is unlikely that Arsene would play him.

If Bendtner does start what of Lukas Podolski? If he plays wide left then who will Arsene play on the right. We know that Arsene avoids playing three direct attackers due to team balance but is that purely defensive balance or creative balance? If only the former then a deep duo of Arteta and Flamini could compensate for it but we would be relying pretty much solely on our number 10 (probably Cazorla) to create anything for the attacking trio. Playing against a side sitting deep with one creative player is never a good idea.

What of the back four? Is it a good time to bring in Vermaelen for Mertesacker who because of his importance rarely gets a sit out these days? Then Sagna needs a rest also but with Gibbs out, it is highly unlikely (and rightly so) that Arsene would change our entire back four at the same time.

Can Rosicky play again after putting so much into the Newcastle game?

Without that information trying to predict a line up is pretty much pointless.

I would quite like to see Podolski and Bendtner on the pitch at the same time, I keep envisaging a Podolski cut back and Bendtner finish. But really, I think it is probably either or and not both unless the game requires a more attacking approach later on. Hopefully not.

What I do hope for is a better game of football than we saw at St James’ Park on the weekend. I suspect that we will have to be patient and move the ball around quickly in front of Cardiff in order to break them down. If we manage to score first, especially early then I think we will win convincingly but the longer the score stays level or Bergkamp forbid they take the lead then we will have to go for broke.

Fingers crossed we can get the victory on a day where, Liverpool aside our rivals have a chance of dropping points in tough fixtures.

Come on you Gunners.