Arsenal travel to the blue half of Merseyside to take on Everton at Goodison Park later tonight.
The match will be preceded with a minute of applause for Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba, who is still in critical condition, but there was some encouraging news yesterday and hopefully he can continue on his path to recovery.
After more than one week of rest from our previous game, the Arsenal squad would have had time to nurse any niggling injuries and refresh themselves for the game tonight.
Everton on the other hand have an FA Cup quarter-final replay to look forward to, and going by the team David Moyes put out against Liverpool last week, he clearly considers the FA Cup a priority over league positioning this season.
Everton have taken the scalps of Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea at Goodison Park, so whatever team Moyes puts out tonight we will have to be at our very best to take all three points back to north London.
The team news looks very good for us. Nobody is injured or unavailable after the Newcastle game, but we do not have anybody returning from injury.
Abou Diaby played for the Resereves last night against Liverpool and scored, so hopefully he should be back in the squad for the weekend match.
I expect us to start with the same team that started in the Newcastle game and hopefully signs of stability are starting to be shown.
Long-term abstentees Per Mertesacker, Jack Wilshere and Fancis Coquelin are still missing.
Likely line-up:
Szczesny
Sagna Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Arteta Song
Rosicky
Walcott Chamberlain
Van Persie
Adding extra spice to the fixture is the return of Mikel Arteta to Everton where he spent six years as a player before moving to Arsenal last summer. While a few may jeer him, I feel the majority of the Everton faithful will provide him with a good round of applause. When Arteta joined Arsenal he spoke of the affection he has for The Toffees and how he will always love the club, so I am sure it will be a special moment for him returning for the first time since his move to London.
Visit and Join our Facebook page, click HERE to do so.
Gunnersphere is currently looking for new writers to join the squad. Contact via twitter or at Gunnersphere@snack-media.com for further details.
i think it’s good ideal…hn! but still santos to play cos he’s a good attacking left back and can create a goal as well …
I hope we don’t concede first/at all today. Clean sheet please guys.
We play better after conceding. ARSE 0 EVER 2 at half time; ARSE 4 EVER 2 at full time.
Ilove the arsenal from my heart, cz is my chois!!
After the great run of form we’ve enjoyed the last few weeks I believe we should roll right through them. Everton a good side will just be too tired to give us any problems. Add to that Rvp’s goal scoring threat, TR7 great form the last month and the back four which are finally healthy and it’s just too much for them to handle. I expect a comfortable 3-nil/4-1 score line.
We need to win 7- 0, walcott need to score 5 like messi
everton will not do any harm this night hopefully ………Gunners for life wow,……