Previews

Santi played pretty much the entire campaign last season in his first year. Then he played for Spain over the summer when he should have been resting so his foot injury was no surprise and his rest was very much needed, hopefully we will get a rejuvenated Santi and that can only be a good thing, a very good thing. An even better thing when you slot him into the same attacking third as one Mesut Özil, a combination that I'm sure you are well aware haven't yet played together as yet. You'd like to think that this will take place this afternoon hopefully from the start but if not then at least at some point. Wouldn't it be typical if Arsene replaced Özil for Cazorla. I don't think this will happen though, Cazorla needs to sharpen up before the big games come our way and he can only do

Özil, Ramsey and Rosicky was sublime at times. In fact it was our best football arguably for some many years. So the question is does Arsene bring back a rested Wilshere? The answer isn't as straight forward when you consider that Rosicky is 33 (happy birthday Tomas) and he will be jetting off with the Czech Republic. Personally, I believe that Rosicky makes the team play better and if he wasn't at his sharpest against Napoli then I want to see him sharper and then given another go in the side

Arsenal on the break, we know how they will play but it will be interesting to see what Arsene does. How does he approach the game, I imagine the first half will be a safety first approach and not much in the way of overcommitting, but I imagine that we will be more adventurous in the second half. Needless to say, the first goal will be vital.This could be the perfect game to rotate Mikel Arteta back into the equation. His passing accuracy from the back four could come in handy. I expect another change with Tomas Rosicky

I suspect that Gnabry may play 60-70 minutes and if we are winning then Monreal can replace him. We are going to miss Walcott's running in behind that's for sure. While Gnabry was a sprinter in his younger years, he doesn't run in behind like Walcott does. Given that Swansea are an attacking team, we need that outlet. Perhaps we will approach the game a little differently. Maybe pushing Özil closer to Giroud and play a deeper midfield four rather than three forwards ahead of Özil.

If I was to guess, I'd say that Mathieu Flamini will continue in the side. Firstly he has not had to fly here, there and everywhere for France. He has also had less games given that he missed the Villa game and part of the Tottenham game. I'd be interested to see what foundation he and Arteta give the team and which player has more of the box to box role. I suspect that Arsene will use the Spaniard from deeper, allowing us to play the ball from the back and control the possession whilst using Flamini's industry and running further up the pitch. I also expect Per Mertesacker to continue at centre back, restoring his old partnership with Thomas Vermaelen. His work load is completely different to that of a midfielder or striker who continuously have to make sprints during games. To use an old cliche, Mertesacker plays a lot of his football in his head so I expect his body to be just find to take on the work load of the next few weeks. Maybe if all is well, Arsene can replace him for Isaac Hayden on 70. Not that I expect the game to be

Nicklas Bendtner is not my favourite ever Arsenal player that is for sure. I don't think his touch is good enough, work rate is not a patch on Giroud and even Chamakh before him but reading comments on Twitter and comments sections saying how they don't want Bendtner anywhere near the squad misses the point for me. We are currently light in attack and I'd take someone of Bendtner's experience as back up instead of moving Theo Walcott 'out of position' and then needing to find someone to offer what Theo does from the right. I wonder if Arsene is contemplating a defensive switch to try and freshen up his squad, even if the West Brom game coming up. Bringing in Monreal for Gibbs who was superb in France in midweek is an option but given the fact that we may need Gibbs' attacking quality going forward, Arsene may stick rather than twist. Hoping that legs hold up.

Both clubs have operated in the transfer market at different ends of the spectrum this summer and I am sure both clubs will be hoping that they will gain the advantage from the squads they have. While Tottenham will be showing off new faces, I cannot help but feel that our continuity of squad will give us the edge, that could well be wishful thinking but I remember this time last season when we drew to Sunderland and Stoke City and we lacked attacking cohesion, I haven't watched the Tottenham games so far but two 1-0 results

Arsene has said that 95% of the team will be the same as against Fulham. We haven't got a great deal to play around with so I am guessing that Monreal will start as he is the closest competitive back up that we have at present. Also Tomas Rosicky started to look a little tired at the end of the Fulham

deliberate strategy to prioritise the energy put into the Champions League qualifier and not the opening game of the season. We've seen a sufficient increase in work rate at the end of our last few seasons when we find ourselves playing one game a week rather than two. The squad is currently thin and not only that but is carrying knocks so the chance for rotation is minimal.