Theo Walcott needs to be available for the team as we were severely suffering from outlets against Fenerbache in midweek. And he is the one player who wants to go beyond the ball and not be drawn moving towards the ball

The time is almost here, our first big Premier League game of the season is about to take place at the Emirates. Current Arsenal form isn’t very good right now and many fans and pundits have already decided that we are going to be eaten alive by Manchester United who funnily enough have shown inconsistency so far this campaign and are only 1 point ahead of us.

We are waiting to know what the state of our injury list looks like right now. William Gallas and Theo Walcott have been rated as 50 / 50 by our manager but I think some of that could well be mind games from the champion mind game player.

Theo Walcott needs to be available for the team as we were severely suffering from outlets against Fenerbache in midweek. And he is the one player who wants to go beyond the ball and not be drawn moving towards the ball.

I have said this more than once now but I just hope that Arsene keeps Djourou in the team after his impressive display against an admittedly defensively minded team. Silvestre is fit to play (apart from his nose of course), Kolo Toure played at right back and is fit to come back into the middle so Sagna can take his place at right back. Apparently Gallas has not had an injury and was dropped by the manager, well that is the rumour going round at least. Would Arsene draft him back for this? It sure is a difficult one to read. I just think that with Arsene’s pecking order, I can see him dropping Johan back down the list, although he deserves to be somewhere near the very top of that central defenders pecking order list.

I am expecting to go with the 5 across midfield with Diaby being the one assigned to play off Bendtner which is not a partnership that I think would work, although playing at home it shouldn’t be as obvious. I cannot imagine Arsene going 4-4-2 against a Manchester United team who will be looking to play 5 across midfield when they are not in possession of the ball. Rooney will drop off the front and play wide right with Ronaldo left. They will play deep and deny us any space to make our passes. When they get the ball back they will break at pace with balls being played up to the feet of Berbatov and the likes of Ronaldo and Rooney will be trying to join him as quickly as possible.

It is a system that Ferguson has been doing against us for the last few seasons and it has worked wonders.

Mean Lean’s predicted lineup

I am hoping that Theo is fit enough to play as his pace and direct running will be important. I am hoping rather than expecting to see Djourou in the side but it could well be Toure and Silvestre depending on fitness.

Mean Lean’s predictions

It would be easier to predict if we knew the line ups but I expect Arsenal to have the ball more often than not, Man Utd will sit pretty deep and fight to win the ball back and once they do they will break. Many have said it will be an open game but I do not expect it to be.

Arsenal 1 (Nasri) Manchester United 1 (Berbatov)