How Arsenal Will Line Up in Champions League Against Marseille

Arsenal face a pivotal Champions League test today against Marseille, who currently sit at the bottom of Group F. The match will set the stage for the final test in the tightest group in years.

As ESPNFC's Miguel Delaney wrote, the outcome of this season's "group of death" hangs in the balance. Arsenal lead, but Napoli have the same nine points the Gunners have and Borussia Dortmund are only one win behind at six points.

Such is the quality of Group F that, Marseille, a very respectable side, have not earned a single point.

While the Gunners dispatched the French side earlier in the season and are oppositely placed in the group standings, underestimating their opponent could easily prove fatal.

Mathieu Valbuena, Andre-Pierre Gignac, Florian Thauvin and Jordan Ayew are all capable of hitting an unsuspecting and unprepared side. Marseille will be motivated to not leave the Champions League completely empty-handed ahead of a rough finale against Dortmund.

So, Marseille will travel to North London with ample motivation and the talent to convert raw desire into three face-saving points.

Let's take a look at who Arsene Wenger might select to secure an absolutely vital three points to give Arsenal some measure of security before their final match against Napoli.

The manager's choice in goal is as obvious as any he will make. Wojciech Szczesny has become a critical stake holding down the Gunners' defensive tent this season, asserting his presence to help make his penalty box a fortress.

Arsenal's defenders feel more confident with Szczesny backing them up than they have with any of the club's recent goalkeepers. Every so often, the Pole flashes some world-class talent to pull off a seemingly impossible save.

Barring any last-minute injuries, the back four will remain the same as it has been virtually all season.

Bacary Sagna will continue to be the consistent dynamic force who shuts down the right flank and gets forward to extremely great effect to compensate for Arsenal's paucity of wingers.

To his left will be the calm and positionally withdrawn Per Mertesacker, marshalling and stabilizing the defence if the Gunners ever come under pressure or need to go on the offensive.

Mertesacker's physical stature and conservative playing style, unique in Arsenal's squad, allows his partner Laurent Koscielny to roam freely and proactively prevent the opposition from creating chances before any significant danger appears.

Thomas Vermaelen would be Koscielny's logical replacement, but the Frenchman has been so consistently faultless for so long that it would be foolish for Arsene Wenger to drop him without very good reason.

The same could be said for Kieran Gibbs on the left, whose quietly assured and energetic recent displays are rapidly making him one of the best left-backs in the Premier League.

Would Wenger commit a catastrophic blunder by opting for Nacho Monreal instead? Certainly not, but there is no recent evidence to suggest that he should do so.

Monreal provides an excellent way to seal victories by coming off the bench late in games, but Gibbs has added such defensive solidity to his game this season that much of Monreal's advantage is nullified.

Things get a bit more interesting in midfield.

Wenger did not add Mikel Arteta to the club's list of injured players during his press conference yesterday, so one can assume the Spaniard is fit after limping off against Southampton last weekend.

He must bring his leadership, composure and positional discipline to the back of the midfield, then. In the absence of Vermaelen, Arteta will wear the captain's armband once again.

Mathieu Flamini will be well-rested after a full two weeks off during the international break and a suspension that kept him out of the Southampton game. Yet his bone-crunching presence and mastery of the dark arts should not be necessary against Marseille—Arteta can cover that, and Arsenal did just fine without him at the weekend.

Marseille are a much less physical side than Southampton, so Wenger should take the opportunity to add more attacking players to the starting XI. Luckily, his choice is not absolute: Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere, the two men he should add, each have a fair bit of defensive robustness about them.

Including both Ramsey and Wilshere, though, necessitates relegating Theo Walcott to the bench.

After months on the sidelines (following an injury sustained against Marseille, incidentally) and in only his second game back, Walcott is probably not quite ready to start ahead of the options Arsenal have.

He will be a fantastic option off the bench, if needed, but a bit of caution might be needed, even if only for one more game.

Walcott thus makes room for Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

In such a setup, Arteta and Wilshere would anchor the midfield, Ramsey would serve as a positionally fluid right-winger with Cazorla in a similar role on the left and Ozil orchestrating it all from his pivotal position.

A completely different arrangement could be obtained by dropping Ozil, which would not be entirely unwarranted based on his recent form. But a player of his calibre simply needs to keep playing to acclimate and grow into his role, and that is what he will almost certainly be given the opportunity to do against Marseille.

At the front of everything, once again, will be Olivier Giroud, as if Wenger has a serious choice to make.

By dropping into midfield and cleverly linking with his fellow forwards, Giroud is able to pull the strings of Arsenal's attack as effectively as any other creative player in the team.

That, along with his vital physical presence in the box, will largely determine whether Arsenal can find the back of the net against Marseille.

If Giroud can oil the rest of the Arsenal machine, the team might be able to remove a lot of the pressure from its group stage finale against Napoli.