Wenger already has a long list of injured attacking players, so although he may want to freshen up the team, his choices are rather limited. I would imagine that Gibbs will get his chance ahead of Clichy who has looked shaky this season but a place on the bench

The team have missed out on a couple of bonus prizes over the last two weeks, Manchester United at Old Trafford and Manchester City at the City of Manchester were both very difficult games, not just difficult games for Arsenal but will be for a vast majority of the rest of the teams in the league. The usual thing to do after a defeat is to write off a team and condemn them to the scrap heap, well that is what I have read.

If our games so far are a microcosm of the season to come then we can be elated, beating the teams we are supposed to beat and only losing (by bad luck in the case of former Champions) to our challengers which is only a handful of matches over the course of the season. Manchester United had the worst record against their rivals but yet ended up holding the trophy come the end of the season.

Clearly not all is hunky dory as far as Arsenal are concerned, please do not mistake my usual optimism for blind faith. Man for man across our squad we can hold our own against many in the land but as a unit we are far from perfect. Our midweek display in the Champions league could well be a fantastic disaster. A disaster in terms of defensive performance, fantastic in the lessons learnt at an early stage in the season. What is even better is that the team managed to turn it around and win the match.

It is pleasing that the fixtures were not reversed. Playing Manchester City away after our midweek display would have given Arsene Wenger the jitters. Instead he will be comforted that his troops will have the awesome ‘supportive’ crowd behind his players. I am sure all Arsene wants by the end of this weekend is three points attached with a clean sheet.

The new look Wigan are our opponents and Roberto Martinez will be looking for consistency from his team. The manager is known for playing the game the correct way, not that it has stopped teams from trying other means against us. You would have thought that any manager who is due to play against Arsenal soon would have watched the footage from Manchester and Belgium and licked their lips at the prospect of finding the secret formula when it comes to beating Arsenal.

Sit deep, deny Arsenal’s technical players time and space, win the ball back and break at speed and look to get numbers forward on the counter attack. I would be surprised if this is not what we will have to come up against this afternoon.

A big question of mine is that of pressing the ball, how will a side who have played a tough Champions League match in midweek be able to run pretty much non stop for 90 minutes? I personally would be very surprised to see the pressing game from Arsenal today, I expect the same type of attitude as we showed in our last home match, the 4-1 victory against Portsmouth.

Wenger already has a long list of injured attacking players, so although he may want to freshen up the team, his choices are rather limited. I would imagine that Gibbs will get his chance ahead of Clichy who has looked shaky this season but a place on the bench will hopefully give Clichy some time to recharge his batteries and come back next weekend.

Aaron Ramsey should be pushing for a place after an impressive substitute appearance so the manager will have to decide if it is the right time to rest Diaby or give him some more game time to sharpen up.

Arsene has been playing a midfielder in one of the three attacking positions away from home against United and Manchester City but it is unlikely that he will approach home matches in the same way. Eduardo may continue in the attack alongside the returning Robin Van Persie and possibly Nicklas Bendtner.

As much as we all want to see Tomas Rosicky continue it is unlikely that Arsene would start him in back to back games so quickly, but if he does take his place on the bench then he could well come on in the second half.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

Victory will be the most important but a clean sheet will be something that Wenger will want from his players after the nightmare defensive performance in midweek.

Lets hope the boys can grab the three points and use this run of fixtures to gain momentum and confidence.