3-1

First defeat of the season

Cesc Fabregas, Van Persie, Gael Clichy and Alex Hleb injured

Villa on top form

Still, a routine away win for the Gooners.

This week all the talk has been about injuries for Arsenal and, to be fair, Aston Villa as well. This leaving us short of arguably our three most influential players and the best left back in the Premiership. Villa have the possibility of playing without Agbonlahor and Reo-Coker.

Nobody seems to talk about who may come in and replace them. In my opinion Denilson is the natural successor to Cesc Fabregas and I fully expect him to play alongside Diarra or Flamini. The other argument is based on the left back position. Do we let the exciting, but somewhat unreliable Traore off the leash, or do we go for Flamini, Gallas or Hoyte? I suspect that Traore will play there.

With Denilson, Adebayor, Eboue, Rosicky and Bendtner/Eduardo/Walcott I feel we have more than enough quality to batter (great word) Aston Villa today. I would prefer playing Eduardo up top alongside Adebayor in a 442 formation. Eduardo seems to have the sort of qualities that would work in favor of that partnership and also the ability that would make it hard for Laursen and Knight to pick him up.

However, Villa have the exciting young on the left wing. He will be up against the beast that is Scary Banga. If Sagna is on form he should cope with Young but the youthful Englishman has the ability to cause us some problems. They also have the powerful Carew as the focal point to their attack. Gallas and Toure are not renowned for their aerial prowess but as it is almost 2 on 1 I cannot see him causing us that many problems.

Expected team:

- - - - - - - Almunia

Sagna - Toure - Gallas - Clichy

Eboue - Den - Flamini - Rosicky

- - - - Eduardo - Adebayor

This of course could be converted to a 451 with Eduardo on the left wing with Rosicky being pushed into the middle. In that case I could see Diarra playing instead of Denilson to give more protection to the back four.

Prediction: 1-3 to the Gooners!