Arshavin has not been at his best so far this season but even at 75% fit he is still one of our most important players in the final third. His ability to spot runners and then find them with decisive passes have been key this season

Arsene Wenger can finally gather his players together after the International break and prepare for the match against big spenders Manchester City.

Wenger will certainly be assessing the physical conditions of some of his weary troops. He will be looking at how many minutes his players have played, how far they have had to travel and what their match sharpness is like. One casualty will be our Russian creator Andrey Arshavin who has had a troublesome groin problem since the start of the season has played one game too many and will be out of action for at least two matches.

Arshavin has not been at his best so far this season but even at 75% fit he is still one of our most important players in the final third. His ability to spot runners and then find them with decisive passes have been key this season. Eduardo Da Silva would be an obvious choice on the left to replace the Russian but I am wondering if our manager would like to use a more defensive selection as it is away from home.

Abou Diaby may be pushed further forward as Emmanuel Eboue was against Manchester United on the right but this time Diaby taking up the left attacking role. Arsene Wenger may want to restrict the number of games Eduardo can play in a short space of time.

Cesc Fabregas should return to the starting line up which could be key to a team losing the creative passing of Arshavin. Cesc is a key player for Arsenal and even more important to the side with his licence to get forward and support the front.

I expect Manchester City to sit deep, not give us any time on the ball to pick passes and being a Mark Hughes side I would not be surprised to see some over physical challenges. They will try and exploit us on the break with the pace of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Emmanuel Adebayor.

One of the interesting clashes will be former Arsenal forward Adebayor against Vermaelen and Gallas. Adebayor will be fighting to do well and score against his former club. He has currently scored three goals in three games so far and will be full of confidence. Thomas Vermaelen hasn’t been up against a player as good as Adebayor so far but he has produced quality performances in every game he has played so far. He was voted as the Arsenal player of the month and has the highest average rating of 7.9 from 5 games on Arsenal Vision, with William Gallas in second place on 7.7 also having played 5 games.

The midfield will be key, they will have to work as hard as they have done against Celtic and Everton so the service to Adebayor can remain limited.

I expect Manchester City to give our back four more trouble than their neighbours did a couple of weeks back but at the same time I expect our players to pose more of a threat to their goal than they have had to deal with so far this season.

I am hoping to see Tomas Rosicky take to the pitch at some point in the second half but I suppose that depends on how the game is being played and what position we find ourselves in late in the second half.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

I expect a tough physical game with many chances being created. I do not think Manchester City are strong enough defensively to shut us out even without Arshavin. I can imagine us going a goal down at half time and coming back to win the game in the second half.