Everton Preview: Arteta vs. His Old Club

Well it's been quite a week already, what with the disappointing yet meaningless loss in Greece, and then the celebrations that broke out round my place when both Manchester clubs were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage. I sure hope Nasri and Clichy are enjoying the top quality opponents they'll now be facing. You know, teams like the fearsome FC Metalist Kharkiv. Quite illustrious lads, you've done your families proud with your choice of club. I can really only muster up one response: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Right then, that's out of my system now.

But as fun as it was to see United and City exit (especially United - I was watching their loss to FC Basel that night), it doesn't mean much for this Saturday. Now yes, this'll have an impact down the road (no Man Utd to knock us out of the Champions League semi-finals as happened rather painfully a few seasons back you'll remember), but now we must turn our attentions to this Saturday as we host Everton.

Everton have been a bit of all over the place as far as their current form goes. They've won half their last six games and lost half. But no matter how their current for is, they're always a difficult side to go and get a result against. Of course, their attacking prowess wasn't helped when we took Arteta from them on deadline day, but nevertheless they're a well organised side and may be hard to break down.

That being said, a win is surely on the cards. Our attacking prowess has been at a top level the last few weeks, shown especially last week in our 4-0 thumping of Wigan. We should be top tomorrow as well. The result against Olympiacos should be long forgotten and have no impact on the game, which means we can play well and confidently.

But then, there was a bit of an impact from the Olympiacos game, wasn't there? Our top-performing Brazilian left-back Andre Santos was injured, and from what Arsene Wenger seems to be saying in his press conferences, rather badly. With no Kieran Gibbs back yet, some reshuffling could be on the cards. Now, we know Vermaelen can play at left back, and most likely that's where Le Boss will play him, but he's been doing excellent work in the centre of our defence, and it'd be a shame to break that up. My choice for left-back would be to play Ignasi Miquel there tomorrow. The boy's been excellent every time he's played there quite honestly, and his was one of the few good performances Tuesday night. The guy's ready for a Premier League start, and it'd give him the confidence he needs to push on and become an even better player.

We'll find out tomorrow, but it's most likely Miquel won't play there and Vermaelen will. Arsene knows best I suppose, so I'm sure it'll work out. On a side note, it'll be interesting to see Arteta out there against his former team mates. The one big advantage is that he knows how Everton's team works, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him bossing the midfield tomorrow.

Prediction then? An Arsenal win, 2-0 or 2-1. A victory would be a massive result for us as it would propel us into the top four with quite the chance of remaining there after the Chelsea-Man City clash on Monday night. Looking forward to it then. Till next time,

Fab 4