The defensive merry-go-round continues as 50% of our back four from our last Premier league outing will be missing due to injury. It is all change in the fullback department as Carl Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs recuperate in the new Arsenal medical center. Andre Santos will keep his place after his up and down CL display and Arsene will probably call on the services of out of favour central defender Johan
Kieran Gibbs has been sucked back into his injury catch-22 and has swirled into the unavailable category due to a stomach muscle issue so Andre Santos who impressed when he came on during the weekend
Laurent Koscielny will return to the team which will thankfully push Alex Song further forward into the position he needs to be in. Koscielny will resume his partnership with Per Mertesacker and it will be down to Arsene to decide to start Andre Santos or Kieran Gibbs. Arsene would have been able to keep a close eye on their progress during the last week as both would have
Theo Walcott has been passed fit but we are still waiting to hear if Gervinho will be passed fit, I am hoping that it is mind games from Arsene Wenger just to keep Redknapp thinking. If we are to do well then I truly expect Gervinho to be the player to cause them the most amount of damage. If we have to start the game without Song in midfield and Arshavin on the left then I would worry about our
Emmanuel Frimpong and Francis Coquelin will be fighting it out to take over from Song's role in the midfield. The European game could suit the ball playing style of Coquelin but Frimpong has come in for Song already this season and has done very well. Personally I would plump for the Frenchman in this instance but I believe that Wenger will choose Frimpong as his chief ball
Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky are back off the treatment table and are included in the squad. Mikel Arteta and Alex Song are certain starters so it will be down to Wenger to decide who from Ramsey and Rosicky is the best suited for this game. My money is on Ramsey after the Welshman's fantastic first half at Ewood park. I have fallen head over heals in love with Francis Coquelin after his energetic performance against Shrewsbury so I hope he makes the bench but he will have strong competition
Ju Young Park will be a certain starter and I would imagine that Marouane Chamakh will also start the game so that throws up some interesting questions. Which position will Ju Park play? Chamakh can only really play as a central striker so Park will either join Chamakh up front or play a wider role. If Park plays a wider role then one of Ryo or Chamberlain will have to drop to the
Obviously first thing is first, I want those three points but I also would love to see our attacking game click because it hasn't so far and many Wenger teams are built on the momentum of our play, if that does not function then we stutter. Fluency is the key, quick combination passing takes time to get right, especially when you have to incorporate new players into the set up
Mikel Arteta would be likely to have more freedom to get closer to van Persie. Defensively this would be very strong but I would be concerned with the team's ability to keep the ball if pressed intensely, it could also be a team that would lack creativity if Arteta was stopped. If Arsene felt brave then he could drop Frimpong to the bench, bring in Yossi Benayoun and drop the midfielders back a slot with
Mikel Arteta has had much more time as he was not called up for Spain and has trained on a few occasions since his £10m move on transfer deadline day. Arteta will be an almost guaranteed starter today but his role in the team is yet to be known to Gooners. I am interested to know if we will go