The season so far has placed us where many thought we would be this year, locked in a battle for fourth. With the exception of West Brom, who are performing well above expectations, the rivals for the Champions League place are the obvious ones.

Arsenal are currently sandwiched above rivals Spurs and tonight's opponents Everton.

The past looks good

Despite Everton always looking like quite a challenge, the Gunners haven’t lost against the Toffees in 10 games.  Everton have only managed two draws in that time and their last win came in 2007.

Running out of steam

Everton are often labelled with the slow starter tag, this has certainly not been the case this season.  The Toffees hurtled out of the blocks and quickly established themselves in the top 5.

However, recently they seem to have hit a bit of a wall.  Draws against Fulham and Norwich combined with a loss against strugglers Reading make Everton’s recent formbook superb reading for Arsenal fans.

Villa breaks momentum

After another lovely 5-2 win against Spurs a couple of weeks ago, fans hoped for the result to prompt a run of form similar run of form as the same result did last season.

After the Montpellier result, this looked like it might be the case, but a dismal performance against Villa could force a halt to the run.  I hope this isn’t the case and there’s no reason why it should be.

Everton are vulnerable, we need to take advantage.

Key men

For Everton, there can only really be one key man this season.  Top goal scorer Marouane Fellaini has made an emphatic start to the season and will be nicely rested after serving a suspension in his last game.

For Arsenal there will be several key performers.  Wilshere’s continued progression is important for the team as well as Giroud’s run of impressive form.  As well as this two clean sheets on the spin will hopefully provide a much needed confidence boost for captain Thomas Vermaelen and Szczesny who is still coming back from injury.

A must win game

Winning tonight will be a massive boost to the Gunners’ season.  It would take us above Everton into fifth place.  West Brom must surely begin to falter so if we hold on we should break back into the top four which is so vital for a good second half of the season.

Likely Line-up

Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Podolski, Arteta, Wilshere, Cazorla, Walcott, Giroud

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