Mikel Arteta has had much more time as he was not called up for Spain and has trained on a few occasions since his £10m move on transfer deadline day. Arteta will be an almost guaranteed starter today but his role in the team is yet to be known to Gooners. I am interested to know if we will go

It seems like all Gooners are very much on the same page today, it is a chance for a new beginning and a chance to wipe away the despair of the summer along with that awful experience at Old Trafford that I am sure we will be reminded of almost as much as the six years without a trophy line. I expect five of those starters not to start today and a further eight players will be added to the squad that did not feature in that game. That is a massive change of the squad and a giant improvement from what we last witnessed.

The Arsenal players haven’t had much in the way of time to train together as the International players joined in training for the first time yesterday. That isn’t very much time for the players to develop any sufficient understanding with their team mates as well as having to adapt to a new style of football.

Opposition

Swansea have remained faithful to their principles so far and have played football from the back which is great to see from a team from the Championship. Whether they finish the season being successful remains to be seen but what they will get is many friends along the way with their style of football.

Defence

Kieran Gibbs is back fit and is likely to start after le Boss announced that new boy Andre Santos is lacking ‘a little bit sharpness’ as he has not had enough match practice. Gibbs deserves his chance as he has been playing very well so far this season but we need to see a run of games from him without break down.

In Vermaelen’s absence, it seems likely that new boy Mertesacker will start alongside Laurent Koscielny unless Arsene thinks that the two have not had enough time to develop that all important understanding in which case, Johan Djourou will come back into the side but that is probably quite unlikely. A home side against a promoted side is the softest introduction to a Premier League game as you are likely to find, that is not to say that the game will be easy but it just shows that no games in the fixture list should be seen as easy games given the competition.

Bacary Sagna will return to the right back position after fighting off recent illness meaning that 3 of 4 defenders will have changed from our last match.

Midfield

Mikel Arteta has had much more time as he was not called up for Spain and has trained on a few occasions since his £10m move on transfer deadline day. Arteta will be an almost guaranteed starter today but his role in the team is yet to be known to Gooners. I am interested to know if we will go back to a fluent 4-3-3 which would mean that each midfielder would take turns in pushing forward and sitting. Or will Aaron Ramsey play primarily as the attacking midfielder with Mikel Arteta playing the box to box position. If Arsene felt like chancing his luck then he could go for broke and play a midfield trio of Arteta, Benayoun and Ramsey with Arteta playing a little deeper, dictating the play with his superb passing range and giving the team more passing options and offensive power but I imagine that would be somewhat unlikely.

I guess that youngster Emmanuel Frimpong will get his chance in the side again after suspension. Frimpong is a wonderfully committed and powerful youngster but as we all know, he needs to be controlled with his aggression and not receive an early yellow card because the second card is never far away and I think it would be quite nice if we could complete a whole Premier League game without a red card.

Attack

I expect Theo to return after being passed fit following a hamstring niggle, Van Persie will lead the line. I guess the only question is of the left side of attack. Andrey Arshavin would usually fill in on that side but I suppose it depends on many factors. Much would depend on International travelling, minutes played during that time and form. Yossi Benayoun would be an interesting option for the boss as he would be able to use a playmaker from wide again, JY Park would also be an option if he managed to obtain his work permit in time but that seems somewhat unlikely right now, especially as he hasn’t trained with us as yet.

Injuries

Tomas Rosicky received a kick to his knee while playing for the Czech Republic and will join Abou Diaby, Jack Wilshere, Thomas Vermaelen and Squillaci on the treatment table.

Suspensions

Alex Song and Gervinho receive one last smack on the wrist and sit out the last of their three games following red cards at Newcastle. Carl Jenkinson also misses this one after his double yellow at Old Trafford.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

It should be an exciting game of football played in the correct way. Arsenal are an unknown quantity right now as we do not know how the new boys will settle assuming that some are given debuts. I am very excited to see how the new players fit in and having a close look at their strengths. The potential link up between Arteta and van Persie. This season van Persie has missed that link and has often looked isolated. Hopefully now we will see Robin spin away from his marker and Arteta float perfectly weighted passes into his path.

I am also excited at the prospect of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming off the bench with 15 minutes to go.

Any victory will do today, getting points back on the board has to be the priority, confidence will follow that but it would be nice to see our swagger return to our attacking football. We are built to score, entertain and win games. Fingers crossed we can see that again.