Arsenal are taking on Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium in a very important Premier League fixture. It's a must win game for Arsenal, and if we were to win we would close the gap on Man United to just four points at this crucial stage of the season. This game also marks the return of Andy Carrol to the Emirates, but hopefully he won't be as damaging to our title chances as he was earlier in the season when he came to the Emirates as a Newcastle player. Stopping Carrol and Suarez will be the key to defeating Liverpool later this afternoon and the defence will have to be at their best. For once there has been good news on the injury front for Arsenal with Szczesny, Djourou and Song all likely to return to the starting line up. Having Djourou back is a huge boost for the Arsenal and along with Szczesny and Song, this will be very close to Arsenal's best possible XI.
Wojciech Szczesny will return in goal today for the Arsenal and is very likely to continue as Arsenal's number one for a very long time. Lehmann was brilliant last weekend but Szczesny is the Arsenal number one and Lehmann may have played his only part of this season already. It was very important he came in and performed well last weekend and this has had a very positive effect on everyone at the club, apart from Manuel Almunia of course.
Bacary Sagna is a major doubt for this match and Emmanuel Eboue is likely to continue at right back. Johan Djourou is very likely to partner Laurent Koscielny at the heart of the Arsenal defence, with Squillaci dropping to the bench. Gael Clichy will continue at left back for the Arsenal today.
Alex Song has returned from injury and will complete a full strength midfield alongside Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas. Having Fabregas in the Arsenal side makes a huge difference and if he plays like he did last weekend we should win this match quite easily.
Theo Walcott is likely to start on the right wing for Arsenal leaving Andrey Arshavin with a place on the bench. Andrey has been improving recentely but Walcott's pace could be the deciding factor in today's match and he is likely to get the nod ahead of the Russian. Robin Van Persie will lead the Arsenal attacking trio and the Dutchman has been in truly incredible form since then turn of the year. Samir Nasri will start on the left hand side for the Arsenal and can hopefully continue to return to the form he showed in the first half of the season where has was easily the league's best player.
This is going to be a very tough match for Arsenal but if we can keep Suarez and Carrol quiet for the 90 minutes we should win the match. I believe Liverpool will struggle defensively against a full strength Arsenal side including the likes of Fabregas, Walcott and Van Persie. Therefore I'm predicting a 2-1 victory for Arsenal at the Emirates later this afternoon.
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