After the fantastic victory at Stamford Bridge at Stamford Bridge at Saturday lunchtime, Arsenal must now concentrate on the next game which is Marseille at the Emirates on Tuesday night where 3 points will guarantee qualification from the group stage.

Statistics

Arsenal go into this game in a rich vein of form, with 8 wins in our last 9 games and 5 wins on the bounce. This is only our 2nd encounter against Marseille, with the first as you will remember came only last week with a gritty 1-0 away victory.

Marseille’s form has picked up over the last few weeks with only one defeat in 6 games and they managed to grab a 2-3 victory away to Dijon on Saturday evening with the winner coming in the last 10 minutes.

Injuries/suspensions/tactics

Arsenal go into this game without fresh new injuries, in fact the good news seems to be that players are returning. Jenkinson and Vermaelen were both 2nd half substitutes against Chelsea on Saturday and there have been no reports of any setbacks for either of them.

It will be interesting to see what starting line up Arsene decides to go with against Marseille, we will be using our tried and tested 4-3-3 formation.

Thankfully we have no suspensions for Tuesday night which is important as Marseille will prove to be a very difficult team, who are very good at counter attacking football. It will be interesting to see how Santos performs against Valbuena on the wing as the French man has proved to be a very tricky opponent in games this season even though he didn’t have his best game against us last Wednesday.

It will be fascinating to see how our defence handle Ayew and Remi upfront. Both of these players can be tricky and know how to find space. Ayew likes to drop off and make last minute runs into the box so it will be important for Alex Song to keep an eye on him and communicate with the defence, which sometimes can be our Achilles heel.

Predictions

I feel Arsenal will win the game, but it will be a very tough encounter. Marseille are good team who are improving game by game. The midfield will be where this game is won and lost. Marseille have tough strong midfielders in the shape of M’bia and Diawara. If Arsenal can get around the back of them we will cause them all sorts of problems as Marseille’s defence is not brilliant.

I predict a 2-1 Victory to The Arsenal.

Line ups

I expect Arsenal to start with a very strong line up. It will be interesting to see if Arsene will bring Jenkinson back in from the start or carry on with Djourou at right back whilst he regains full fitness. I expect Vermalen to start, but I am not sure whether or not he will rest Mertesacker or Koscielny.

I predict the starting line up will be: Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Song, Arteta, Ramsey, Arshavin, Walcott, Van Persie.

Marseille: Mandanda, N'Koulou, Morel, Diawara, Fanni, Diarra, Cheyrou, Valbuena, Remy, Ayew, Ayew

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