How Arsenal Will Line Up Against Cardiff City

After an uplifting win against Marseille, Arsenal will get right back to Premier League action against Cardiff City.

On paper, the Gunners should have a fairly easy matchup in what has recently been a very difficult schedule.

The bluebirds currently sit in 14th place—not terrible for a newly promoted side but 15 points below first-placed Arsenal after 12 matches. Frazier Campbell is their top scorer in the League with three goals and Olivier Giroud is Arsenal's with seven.

The Gunners are in the middle of a very compressed schedule, and Arsene Wenger will need to consider whether to rotate his squad. The trip to Cardiff is followed by consecutive home matches against Hull and Everton before the decisive Champions League group stage match against Napoli.

This all will transpire in the span of 15 days, so if Wenger wants to wring the most out of a talented but heavily used squad, he will need to intelligently rotate in the correct games. He spoke about the coming conundrum recently (via The Telegraph):

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We have three Premier League games before then so I have to use the squad well to make sure we don't drop points in the league and go to Napoli with a strong team.

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Arsenal's next match is against Hull, which might complicate things, as the Tigers are even weaker opponents than Cardiff and they are immediately followed by Everton.

Still, let's look at how Arsenal might line up against Cardiff, starting with the man between the sticks.

It will, as we all know, be Wojciech Szczesny. The Pole has impressed so much this season with displays that blend raw talent, confidence and maturity that Arsenal awarded him a new long-term contract.

Wenger recently said that Szczesny can become an Arsenal legend, and, if you can excuse the grandiloquence, he will continue that journey on Saturday.

Szczesny should see familiar faces in front of him in defense, with one possible exception.

Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker are surefire starters, after continuing their collective dominance against Marseille. There is a slight chance that Thomas Vermaelen might come back, but he is more likely to return for Arsenal's next game against Hull.

On the left, Wenger faces a much more difficult decision after Nacho Monreal put in a stunning performance against Marseille.

Kieran Gibbs has been remarkable all season, but the Spaniard is now giving him some legitimate competition, and if Gibbs has only recovered from illness in the last couple of days, as Arsene Wenger said recently, Monreal should be given an encore.

Wenger has some more difficult decisions to make in midfield, as the returns to fitness of Mikel Arteta and Theo Walcott complicate matters significantly.

Let's work off the assumption that Arsenal will field a 4-2-3-1 formation, as they seem to have done in their most recent matches. Mikel Arteta, who was banged up and a bit tired for the Marseille match, will probably take Mathieu Flamini's place, as the Gunners can afford to substitute the Frenchman's grit for the Spaniard's guile.

Aaron Ramsey should be given a rest so that Jack Wilshere can slot back into the deep-lying role beside Arteta that suits him best. Much like Mertesacker and Koscielny in defense, Arteta can sit back and read the game while Wilshere bursts forward in a much more dynamic role.

That way, Ramsey can be used as a very versatile weapon off the bench, while Wilshere's man-of-the-match performance against Marseille is rewarded with another start.

Moving Wilshere back to his natural position and removing Ramsey allows Theo Walcott to finally make his return to the starting XI on the right wing, adding the speed and width that Arsenal have so sorely lacked during his absence. In a team with few noticeable flaws, that was certainly one.

After two appearances off the bench, Walcott should be ready to take a large and much-needed step toward full fitness by completing the majority of the match, if not the full 90 minutes, against an opponent that he should be able to handle.

This will also relieve some pressure hitherto placed on Bacary Sagna to compensate for Arsenal's vacancy on the right side, giving the Gunners a totally different dimension.

Walcott's return provides an outlet for the orchestrators who will rotate between the central attacking position and the left wing.

Those would be Mesut Ozil, who, despite his missed penalty, delivered a sterling performance in midweek, and Santi Cazorla, who should be fresh after only appearing off the bench in the same fixture.

Wenger would not make a mistake in opting for Tomas Rosicky, as he did in the Marseille match, but selecting Cazorla gives him the option of making the same swap against Hull in Arsenal's next game before a much sterner test versus Everton.

Up front, of course, we will once again see Olivier Giroud, whose automatic inclusion serves as a continuous reiteration of the need for a reinforcement in January.

Nevertheless, Arsenal's top goalscorer is not a bad man to have leading the line if no other option is available. If Giroud can manage to avoid burning out, he will be a vital cog in this and Arsenal's subsequent rapid-fire fixtures.

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