Arsenal face arguably their toughest test in their bid to qualify for next season's Champions League, as fellow “top 4” challengers, Everton come to the Emirates on Tuesday night.

There's a minor injury worry over Lukasz Fabianski. But he is expected to be fit, and the return to fitness of Tomas Rosicky, as well as Per Mertesacker being available after suspension leaves Arsene Wenger with a relative wealth of options for his first XI.

Club captain, Thomas Vermaelen didn't do a lot wrong against Norwich, but Arsenal have tended to look stronger in defence when Mertesacker is partnered with Laurent Koscielny at centre-half.

The availability of Rosicky means Wenger has the option to return him to the side, probably in place of Jack Wilshere – whose poor display against Norwich belied his lack of match-fitness.

Theo Walcott, Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all made key interventions from the bench on the weekend, and have pushed themselves into consideration for a starting place on Tuesday.

Predicted Line-Up

Given Wenger's options, this is a tough starting XI to predict. Don't be surprised if this is incorrect, but I think the likely starting line-up is as follows:

Fabianski; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Arteta, Ramsey, Wilshere; Walcott, Giroud, Cazorla.

Everton

In the same way that Arsenal were written off after defeat in the North London derby, many felt Everton's season had come to a juddering halt after the ignominious way Wigan eliminated them from the FA Cup.

However, like Arsenal, Everton have recovered impressively from that loss, taking 13 points from the last 15, including a 2-0 victory over Manchester City, and a 2-2 draw against Tottenham, in which the Merseysiders were unlucky not to win.

Apart from the injured Tony Hibbert, Everton have a full complement of players to choose from. Victor Anichebe will likely keep his place in attack ahead of Nikica Jelavic, but the Croatian could prove to be an dangerous impact substitute.

Most of their strength is expected to come down their left-hand side, with Steven Pienaar and Leighton Baines a menacing combination. They will also test Arsenal from set-pieces, with the height offered by the likes of Phil Jagielka, Sylvain Distain and Marouane Fellaini ensuring that Arsenal will need to do a better job defending these situations than they did against Norwich on Saturday.

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