I was feeling rather disappointed that Abou Diaby was ruled out of the game but he has made a miraculous recovery, and continues with his place in the squad. It should mean that he will continue alongside Denilson in the middle of midfield. That partnership did so well against the Roma midfield

I tell you what for just about nothing, I am looking forward to this one big time. We have had many frustrating false starts this season. Turning on the style in a big game then flopping Pele style in the next. Well I’ll tell you what, it will not be like that this time round, we will put an end to that. Our run of games without a league goal will come crashing down. Marky words ol chap.. or chapett.

I was feeling rather disappointed that Abou Diaby was ruled out of the game but he has made a miraculous recovery, and continues with his place in the squad. It should mean that he will continue alongside Denilson in the middle of midfield. That partnership did so well against the Roma midfield which is their strongest area, so as long as the commitment and high tempo is put in then I would expect it to be a little too much for Fulham at the Emirates.

You would expect Andrey Arshavin to come straight back into the team and if Arsene keeps the same formation then he will replace Bendtner in the starting 11, if Wenger reverts to a 4-4-2, or put it a better way, two forwards playing up top then you would expect Eboue to miss out. I cannot imagine that he will drop Eboue, especially given the good display he put in. He drove at Roma and caused them massive problems. You can expect another defensive performance from yet another Premier League team, Fulham have had the most amount of scoreless games which doesn’t bode well, but I still expect our team to nick an early goal and win convincingly.

Much has been made of teams who come and park the bus but Fulham boss Roy Hodgson has hinted that he will go against that and play two strikers.

Hodgson said:

“I think what Arsene was referring to is that sometimes when they play at home they come up against teams who don’t really come to beat them or to take them on toe to toe, They come to contain them, work very hard, pack the defence and hope for a lucky break. But my task is to prepare Fulham for the game and to do the best for them. Ideally we do (play with two strikers). I can’t say I would never contemplate moving one of the strikers to bolster the midfield if I thought that was the best chance of us getting a result because I wouldn’t hesitate to do that.

“But I prefer to play two strikers. That’s the way we’ve set up our players, that’s the way we’ve trained all season and all of our patterns of play are built around that. So given normal circumstances that’s the way I would prefer to do it, but I’m not prepared to take the moral high ground which would prevent me from playing another system.

“We’ll play with two strikers against Arsenal tomorrow because we think that’s our best chance of getting a result.”

Two strikers ey? Well did he say that they would both play up the front? hmmm, I can imagine Andy Johnson playing on the right wing, where he did so well for his country (yep, that was tongue in cheek)

Either way, we will score the early goal, so they will have to come out and we will pick them off as we used to do.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

Wenger will want to keep the shape and attitude of the team, as he will want to build on the good display. Hopefully the players can raise their game just as they did against Roma. Sometimes the tempo of the side slows down against the lesser teams and that really gets my goat. I do not know if it is the manager telling the players to relax and be patient or if it is a form of complacency that keeps coming in. There is no point in playing the 1st gear for 75 minutes then slowly upping the gears in the closing period because late goals are far from guaranteed.

The more I think of it, the more I think that Bendtner may well start ahead of Eboue but I personally would rather see the team pictured above play. Eboue gives us more pace and penetration whilst Bendtner gives us more power and goal threat. Its Wenger’s choice.

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

I expect an early goal for a change and that will change the game all together for both teams, once we have goal then the team can relax and the confidence will come flooding back into the players.

I like the idea of Arshavin nipping in between defenders to poke the ball past the keeper for the first goal of the game, a kinda Ljungberg goal of old creeps into my mind.

Right that is just about the size of it for now, here is to three points and hopefully some slip ups from Villa and Chelsea.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

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