Previews

Trio Thomas Vermaelen, William Gallas and Alex Song will have to be at their very best to deal with the height of Peter Crouch who is likely to come in for Defoe. Beating Crouch one on one would be difficult for most defenders

The front line could be made of mostly first team members, with Nicklas Bendtner and Eduardo missing recent games due to injury problems. If the front line consists of Bendtner, Eduardo and Vela then I will be eagerly watching to see how takes up the right sided position

The injuries have given a chance to the younger members of the squad to make the trip to Holland. The likes of Wilshere, Vela and Fran Merida will most likely take a place on the Arsenal bench

An early goal for Arsenal without gifting the opposition a goal start from a long punt up field will be just the tonic. The longer Birmingham keep Arsenal at bay the more they will play anti-football

Arsene will have Nicklas Bendtner back after his car accident and will probably be included in the starting eleven with Theo Walcott who has not kicked a ball for the team so far this season

He is also very defensively capable and has never been one to forget the dirty side of the game but I am wondering if Wenger will be interested in protecting his player from the physical challenges of central midfield

The typical early injury crisis is rather untypically clearing up at a rapid rate. Andrey Arshavin who missed the last few weeks since the Internationals through injury has healed and is ready to unleash his powers against Fulham

Jack Wilshere is the obvious attraction tonight, I wonder if Arsene will play him wide in an attacking role or if he will be given the central creative role that Cesc occupies in the first team

Wenger already has a long list of injured attacking players, so although he may want to freshen up the team, his choices are rather limited. I would imagine that Gibbs will get his chance ahead of Clichy who has looked shaky this season but a place on the bench

We haven't seen much of Wilshere recently, he has been tucked away at London Colney learning his trade, working on his weaker points. We have not seen him since his late introduction against Celtic in the second leg