Preview Of Arsenal's Must-Win Game Against Birmingham

The Premier league action returns today at last and with it Arsenal take on Birmingham at the Emirates.

It's an absolute must-win game for Arsenal as we have taken only one point from our last three league games and the teams are queueing up behind us to knock us out of the top four in the table.

The injury news from the squad seemed to be improving as Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner and Kirean Gibbs are all set to return and we only lost Bakari Sagna to injury, or so it seemed.

Then the boss informed us that Laurent Koscielny had injured his back and wouldn't be available, and it leaves the team looking even weaker. 

We are missing our first-choice keeper and three of our first-choice defenders along with our captain and creative driving force and of course our first-choice centre forward too.

I make that six of the team that would be considered our starting 11 by the boss that are unavailable and three of them are the spine of the team, too. 

Personally, I've no problem with Manuel Almunia being still injured as I've had enough of him, and I think Lukasz Fabianski has done very well in the two matches he has played so far.

I know he could possibly be a disaster waiting to happen and if that does occur then nobody will be surprised.

We have had plenty of people telling us how great both he and Almunia are in training but there is such a thing as big-match mentality and not only do they not seem to have it but they don't even seem to have little-match mentality.

I hope Fabianski has another solid game today and if he does, I feel confident that we can get the win we need.

The defence worries me a little because I haven't been overly impressed with either Johan Djourou or Sebastien Squillaci this season and how they will work as a central pairing when Birmingham try to hit us on the break is worrying.

We know that Birmingham will do what virtually every other team do when they visit the Emirates and put nine or ten men behind the ball and look to pick us off on the break as well as looking to capitalise from set pieces.

Birmingham have only scored seven goals in seven games and they weren't exactly prolific last season, either.

However, last season they managed not to concede too many goals but this season those clean sheets seem to have dried up as they have conceded 10 goals so far.

Arsenal have no problems really when it comes to scoring with 16 league goals but our problems are at the back with nine goals conceded so far.

The manager said that we lost the title last season because we conceded too many goals but we are on course to concede even more this season and one clean sheet in seven league games simply isn't good enough.

I've more or less named the defence with the exception of Emmanuel Eboue and Gael Clichy in the full back roles and again Eboue's defending can be slack at times.

Clichy is struggling a little with his defending and his ability to give the ball away in dangerous situations is very worrying at times.

For that defence to have any chance of keeping a clean sheet they will need Alex Song to stick to his defensive midfield role and protect them at all times.

He has being wandering all over the pitch this season and he needs to get back to playing the role that is set out for him and is best for the team.

I would imagine that Jack Wilshere and Abu Diaby will make up the remainder of the midfield, with Wilshere dropping deep and taking the ball from the defence and getting our game going at the pace that is required to hurt the opposition.

He is such a joy to watch as a player and Cesc Fabregas has already said that Wilshere is better at his age than Cesc was at that age. That's some praise indeed from a player I consider to be the best player in his position in the world.

Wilshere just needs to start adding some goals to his game but Cesc wasn't exactly prolific in his early years at Arsenal and look at how many goals he has scored in the last two seasons.

I think Diaby will play because of his height, as he was so effective in defending set pieces against Chelsea, and we do have a distinct lack of height on the team.

I just hope we get the Diaby who works hard and plays at the same pace as the rest of the team because all too often, his alter ego turns up and decides to dwell on the ball and stroll around the pitch which is of no use to the team whatsoever. 

The attack should be led by Chamakh and he needs a goal as they seem to have dried up recently. He still leads the line very well, holds the ball up and brings other players into the game, but a striker needs to be scoring goals.

All of his goals have come at home so far, so I expect him to get on the score sheet today.

On the left we will have our top scorer Andrei Arshavin and despite the fact that he seems disinterested at times and doesn't get involved enough, he has still managed five goals from nine starts in a wide role.

Overall he scores more than one goal in every three games and has better than one assist in six games in the Premier league for Arsenal and they are pretty good statistics for a player in his position.

If we could just get the very best out of him all the time, I'm sure those statistics would be even better. He will be up against Stephen Carr today, and I think we have to use Arshavin as much as possible as Carr may be experienced but I don't rate him at all.

The final player in the starting 11 should be Samir Nasri and although he will be in a wide right role I don't expect to see him out there too much.

That will give Eboue a chance to steam forward from right back and cause the Birmingham defence some trouble as long as he manages to stay on his feet.

Nasri will come inside as often as possible and he can cause Birmingham some real trouble with his creativity and goalscoring ability.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him get his name on the score sheet today either, but he also has to remember his defensive duties when Birmingham have the ball.

Overall we have a good enough team to beat Birmingham comfortably despite all the absentees and I expect us to do just that. We cannot afford to play like we did against West Brom where we only woke up with 20 minutes left when we were 3-0 down.

We need the tempo and commitment that we saw against Chelsea and we will make chances as Birmingham are nowhere near as good as Chelsea are.

I think Walcott will be sprung from the bench at some stage as Birmingham tire to inject some real pace into the wide-open spaces of the Emirates pitch. We will probably see Bendtner make his comeback off the bench at some stage as well.

Birmingham are bound to try to keep things as tight as possible and pressurise us when we have the ball. As long as they don't go beyond what's acceptable in their tackling that's absolutely fine, but if they step over that line the referee has to deal with them appropriately.

I spoke yesterday of how their manager was trying to influence the referee by accusing our manager of doing the very same thing and I just hope that the referee is good enough to stick to the laws of the game and we will be perfectly happy with that.

We have had our share of nasty challenges from Birmingham players in the past but Martin Taylor is no longer with them thankfully.

However, Liam Ridgewell will be playing today, and Walcott will remember his committed challenge last season which injured him.

Once we approach the game in the right manner, I predict a 3-1 win for Arsenal and then we can move on to the important business of another home game in the Champions league on Tuesday night against Shakhtar Donetsk.

That game will see the return of Arsenal favourite Eduardo and I'm sure he will get a fantastic reception at the game but that's a matter for the next few days and I'll leave it there for today.

Don't forget to check out my Premier league predictions for this weekend and feel free to tell me where you think I have gone wrong.

See You Tomorrow.