Arsenal Vs. Tottenham: Arsenal Pregame

Pre game:

Arsenal travel to White Hart Lane on Wednesday looking to maintain their title bid. The first installment of the North London derby was won 3-0 at the Emirates by Arsenal, with two goals from Robin van Persie, and one from Cesc Fabregas. Arsenal look to be boosted with the possible return of forward Robin van Persie, who will be making his first appearance since November. The Dutch international has been out since the Netherlands friendly against Italy.

The game could prove pivotal in Arsenal's title bid, as a win would secure 3 points, which would put them on level points with Chelsea. Chelsea's superior goal difference would keep them in 1st place, but a potential win would allow Arsenal to apply pressure on the current leaders, and with Manchester United having drawn at Blackburn over the weekend second place is now Arsenal's to lose. However, the Gunners will be without skipper Cesc Fabregas, who scored a spectacular goal in the corresponding tie of this season, and had been in magnificent goal scoring form since day 1 of the season. Fabregas will be sidelined for the remainder of the season with the cracked fibula he suffered during the first leg of the Barcelona tie. The return of van Persie however, will be a great physcological boost to the team. He will start on the bench, taking into account his possible lack of match fitness, and Nicklas Bendtner's current form.

Alex Song will be unavailable having not recovered from inflamed cartilage in his knee

Arsenal will remain without long term absentees, Kieran Gibbs and Johan Djourou.
William Gallas is out, and will be until the end of the season. Andrey Arshavin still seems a week away from returning to full fitness.

My opinion:

Bendtner or van Persie?

For now i think like Bendtner would be the smart choice, considering that he's struck a vain of form recently and that van Persie is very possibly short on match fitness.

Who do we need to watch?

Gareth Bale. Sagna is going to need to play well defensively against him for us to subdue the young Welshman.

Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko's height could also be a problem for our notoriously small team.

Who needs to step up?

Nasri does. Fabregas' boots are hard to fill, and i'm sure Nasri knows that he has to step up. If Nasri plays to his potential he will be able to adequately fill in for Cesc, and he will provide most of our creativity from the middle of the field. Our offensive performance is pivotal on Nasri.

Another player who needs to step it up is Almunia. Manuel has been plagued by inconsticency throughout the season, and if we want to beat Spurs, and make a serious title bid he really will have to be at the top of his game.

More thoughts?

I want to see Theo start his raw pace is a threat for any defence, especially with the Russian magician Arshavin sidelined.
Hopefully Bendtner will continue his great goalscoring form, and convert the opportunities he gets.

And Finally?

Our last game, the 4-1 drubbing from Messi and Barcelona, was disheartening. I'd like to say embarassing, but Barca really were a class above, but we do have something to prove now. That said, Spurs have just been knocked out of the FA cup in the Semi Finals, and that will have obviously hurt. I predict a fiery, North London encounter, and hopefully the lads will not dissapoint.