How will we line up tonight?

How will we line up tonight?

Tonight’s match is pretty important for the future of our Champions League campaign this season. Braga is only three points behind us and a defeat will put us level on points with the Portuguese side. Although theoretically we should not have any problem beating Partizan at home in the next match, our home form dictates that we should get the business done in Portugal before heading home.

Nicklas Bendtner, who has been moaning about his lack of opportunities, will most likely start tonight’s match, flanked by Walcott and Nasri. I am pretty disappointed with Walcott over the past two or three games. He seems to have slipped back to his ineffectively form of previous season after coming back from injury. 

We have our strongest midfield players back from injury and suspension so I expect Arsene to start with the trio of Wilshere, Song and Fabregas. After about a week out through injury, I want to see Wilshere geared up for this match. He can be the one to sparked the team and bring back confidence to the squad. I agree with Kenny Daglish when he said Jack will be as good as Gerrard.  At times during the games, he seems to defer to Fabregas and Song to run the midfield while he steps into his position based on their movement. With Fabregas not firing on all cylinders, it is up to Jack to take charge of the midfield and run the offensive strategy. I have confidence in the boy.

With Clichy back home at the Emirates, Gibbs will have his chance to convince the Arsenal faithful that he has the goods to take over from the Frenchman on a permanent basis. However it would be great if he could just last the entire match without getting injured.

The goalkeeping situation is going to be interesting now that Almunia is back. I don’t think there is a reason to reinstate the Spaniard as Fabianski is doing extremely well at the moment.

If not for anything else other than getting over the defeat on Saturday, we really need the lads to pull this one off in style.

Probably line-up: Fabianski, Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Gibbs, Song, Wilshere, Fabregas, Nasri, Walcott, Bendtner.