I would like to see both Özil and Ramsey rested for this for differing reasons. A fresh Ramsey would have been ideal for this given the insane amount of tackles he makes during the course of 90 minutes but he looked below par against Everton and has played more than most. Özil on the other hand looks like he could play another midweek and then weekend but I think we should start a midfield who are all natural at tracking a man and putting a foot in. If we need to score as the game goes on then he wouldn’t be a bad sub would he. In the team that I have selected above, all those players like a tackle, will track back yet have the footballing quality to hurt Napoli.

A 3-0 defeat would see Napoli progress to the knock out stages and if Borussia Dortmund beat Marseille then it would leave Arsenal relegated to the Europa cup. That may well be unlikely to happen but it was also supposed to be unlikely that France were going to beat Ukraine 3-0 last month, it was unlikely that Arsenal would come back from a 4-0 beating in Milan only for us to come a van Persie point blank miss away from leveling the game in the second leg. While we are huge favourites to go through tonight, especially given our away record we cannot afford to be complacent.

The psychology of both teams in these types of games is usually so different to a one off game. It is why we need to stop Napoli from scoring early on because once they do they will smell blood and we will more than likely look to protect what we have.

Luckily this is the 2013/14 Arsenal rather than some teams of old that were far more fragile. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arsene start a team who were all strong off the ball, who were all naturals at protecting their defenders. It is a difficult balance to try and get right as you don’t want to go to Italy with the sole intention of defending for 90 minutes. We will want to go and try and score ourselves against a Napoli team who have conceded goals in recent weeks.

At the same time, I’m sure Arsene is also keeping one eye on the weekends fixture against Manchester City who rested a host of key players last night when they beat Bayern Munich. It just shows you how important they feel the game with us will be.

What will be interesting to see tonight is how we approach the game. Do we press high against them and try and score the first goal or do we sit back, as we have done well this season and then hit them on the break. I keep predicting that Walcott will start only for him to continue on the bench. Surely tonight is the night where he starts from the very beginning. He made a goal in our last game off the bench and will be a very important outlet when it comes to preventing Napoli from pushing too high up the pitch.

I’d happily take a draw in this game to see us top the group, given the teams who will finish top of their groups.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

I would like to see both Özil and Ramsey rested for this for differing reasons. A fresh Ramsey would have been ideal for this given the insane amount of tackles he makes during the course of 90 minutes but he looked below par against Everton and has played more than most. Özil on the other hand looks like he could play another midweek and then weekend but I think we should start a midfield who are all natural at tracking a man and putting a foot in. If we need to score as the game goes on then he wouldn’t be a bad sub would he. In the team that I have selected above, all those players like a tackle, will track back yet have the footballing quality to hurt Napoli.

Arsene could even start with Monreal ahead of Gibbs on that left side but I don’t know if he would want to go so defensive from the start..

We’ll see. Whatever team that heads out there tonight, let is hope we get the job done.

COYG.