Trio Thomas Vermaelen, William Gallas and Alex Song will have to be at their very best to deal with the height of Peter Crouch who is likely to come in for Defoe. Beating Crouch one on one would be difficult for most defenders

This fixture, last season goes down as one of the worst draws that I have ever felt. The disappointment still cuts deep within me. Leading 4-2 up with minutes on the clock remaining and you all know what happened next. It is debatable as to whether the team has completely learned how to shut out matches.

I believe that last seasons result took a bit out of the team and it took them a while to recover from that mentally and psychologically, this time both teams are feeling positive and will be confident that they can upset the other.

Although I dismiss Robbie Keane’s comments that Tottenham have a stronger bench than Arsenal, in fact I find that comment laughable but I do admit that they are stronger than they have been for some time. On their day I think they can be a match for most and are fully capable of scoring goals. Having said that I think much of their attacking threat will be somewhere other than the Ashburton Grove pitch due to Jermaine Defoe’s suspension and Aaron Lennon’s injury. Gael Clichy will be thanking his lucky stars that he will not have to spend the afternoon sprinting up and down chasing Lennon but instead will have a new challenge closing down David Bentley to prevent him from getting crosses into the box.

Arsene currently has a few injuries to his right side of attack, Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott are unavailable for the match so Wenger has to choose between Nicklas Bendtner and Emmanuel Eboue to play in an attacking role alongside probably Andrey Arshavin and Robin Van Persie.

Trio Thomas Vermaelen, William Gallas and Alex Song will have to be at their very best to deal with the height of Peter Crouch who is likely to come in for Defoe. Beating Crouch one on one would be difficult for most defenders so putting him off his header as well as being first to the knock downs will be vital.

The midfield battle will be interesting, both teams will want to keep the ball and pass it. I expect Tottenham to be committed and offensive. I do not think they will sit off and hit us on the break, I expect them to attempt to impose their game and I believe they will have their fair share of possession during the game.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

No matter how I look at this game, I cannot shake off a rather negative feeling I have hanging over my head when it comes to the match this afternoon. I can see Arsenal scoring goals against Tottenham but I can also see us conceding. Tottenham will be willing to show that they can compete with us and they will want to use this game to show that they have narrowed the gap. I can see another high scoring draw.