We can cross off number four because Arsene has already explained that Bacary Sagna has a tight hamstring. Carl Jenkinson will be brought back into the fold after perhaps subtly being edged out a little to regain some of his form/confidence. Long term I have no worries about Jenko at all. He has the right hunger and attitude as well as having played long spells in the team last season and looking impressive with it. As long as his sharpness and confidence are good tonight then he will be fine. Now as for the rest of the above personnel, Arsene has an issue. All those players are key players for this team and it is why they have played the most football this season. You leave all five out of the team and as I said above you lose not only quality but you lose continuity and understanding. If as Arsene eluded to in his press conference, he rotates game by game it means that in some very big games we will be starting with Özil or Giroud or Ramsey on the bench. I’m not sure we want to do that.

Arsene Wenger has a dilemma on his hands this evening as Hull Tigers City visit the Emirates stadium. The mantra about the next game being the only game has been spoken about ever since we got our house in order after the defeat at White Hart Lane last season.

It has served us very well but tonight, Arsene cannot just think about Hull City or even Everton. He has to think of the cluster of Manchester City, Chelsea and Napoli. Our strongest available 11 cannot play all of the games from now until then.

We saw what happened to an Arsenal team pushed to the limits at Old Trafford. Games against Liverpool and then Dortmund in a short space of time meant that we were not able to do ourselves justice, if we were to try and play the same eleven players for the next month then we would almost certainly drop points and probably players due to injury.

At the same time rotating too many players at once will more than likely result in a lack of team continuity. Continuity has arguably been our greatest strength since the end of last season.

So given that I have no idea about what data Arsene can see in terms of his players fatigue levels or what his tactical ideas may be, I guess this preview will have far more questions than answers.

If I was to pick a top 5 of players who are most in need of rest, I would select the following.

1) Aaron Ramsey
2) Oliver Giroud
3) Mesut Özil
4) Bacary Sagna
5) Jack Wilshere

We can cross off number four because Arsene has already explained that Bacary Sagna has a tight hamstring. Carl Jenkinson will be brought back into the fold after perhaps subtly being edged out a little to regain some of his form/confidence. Long term I have no worries about Jenko at all. He has the right hunger and attitude as well as having played long spells in the team last season and looking impressive with it. As long as his sharpness and confidence are good tonight then he will be fine.

Now as for the rest of the above personnel, Arsene has an issue. All those players are key players for this team and it is why they have played the most football this season. You leave all five out of the team and as I said above you lose not only quality but you lose continuity and understanding. If as Arsene eluded to in his press conference, he rotates game by game it means that in some very big games we will be starting with Özil or Giroud or Ramsey on the bench. I’m not sure we want to do that.

So what is the answer? We’ll soon find out I guess.

Maybe we will see most of our players start these games but withdrawn at Arsene’s favourite 70 minute mark. If that is the case and you can’t understand why we are making such a change then maybe fitness levels are something to keep in mind.

As for players coming in tonight, I think both Tomas Rosicky, Mathieu Flamini and Theo Walcott are very good choices to have without our level of quality dropping. In fact they can add something we do not have currently.

And they said we have a weak squad pfffftt.

Although Santi hasn’t been at his very best I don’t see him dropping out as he was rested against Marseille plus he also missed out on a lot of energy sapping games earlier in the season due to injury so I wouldn’t be surprised if he is played non stop during this time.

I am thinking that Arsene’s biggest selection headache will be about Oliver Giroud. Now has got to be the best time to rest him being at home and also playing against the lowest placed side in this run (not underestimating just a fact) but Lukas Podolski who is surely next in line in that position is still a week or two away from playing. Theo Walcott is the only other option as I doubt if Bendtner counts any longer. Theo playing means a completely different way of playing.

Interestingly, Theo has not played that role ever since he was horribly found out against Bayern Munich. It is also a big ask of him to make his first league start since his injury in that position once more, although he would probably relish the chance of playing the role he sees as his favourite, certainly not his best as far as my amateur eyes see.

This week, this seems a little pointless but here goes..

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up:

Or..

Those line ups probably have too many changes at once but that is what I think I would do. Be pretty nice having Giroud, Özil and Ramsey sitting on the bench if needed. Whatever the line up the all important requirement is to stick another 3 points to our points total come the final whistle, that and no injuries or suspensions would be just what we need.

Hull City’s victory against Liverpool should give them some belief but it will also wake up our players, not that they need it given how wonderfully professional they have been until now.

Fingers crossed the home side do the biz and we get some favourable results in the other games tonight.

I’d be interested to know what you think about rotation. How many should be rotated, who should be etc. Let us know in the comments below.

COYG.