West Bromwich Albion (A)

Well we've crashed out of everything but the Premier League now so it doesn't take a genius to figure out what every post for the rest of the season will be on. West Brom away, earlier in the season I would have seen as a 3 pointer all day long. Then and again I said that for the home tie against them, but now the stakes are even higher. They need the points but so do we and this is the sort of game we could throw away easily if we lose focus. So to the team.

With the expected but still disappointing news that Thomas Vermaelen (out for about 3 weeks since the 28th August according to Wenger) wont make an appearance this season the back four almost certainly will be Clichy, Koscielny, Squillaci and Sagna from left to right respectively. A 5 man midfield including Arshavin who is still at the forefront of the fans abuse, on the left. Wilshere, Rosicky who has been a poor player since returning this season and (sadly) Denilson who I still think is one of the worst Brazilian footballers ever to live. Nasri taking up the role on the right to try and weave his way around Nicky Shorey and Van Persie in the middle as the lone striker.

As for them, their leading striker Pete Odemwingie seems to be the pundits favourite to start on the bench behind Fortune with Morrison who is a real danger right behind him. Christ Brunt looks doubtful after suffering from illness in the last couple of days.Mulumbu provides their power in the middle and will no doubt cause us problems as all players like him do. Of course they have Scott Carson in goal, he has his critics but on his day he's as capable as any keeper.

This will be a hard game, no doubt there. However if we're really in the running for the title this is the game we need to win. I must agree with what Roy Hodgson said yesterday though when asked about what he thinks our mentality will be like after going out of 2 cups in quick succession: "When you draw Barcelona away in the Champions league...there's a risk your gonna lose that and when you draw Manchester United away in the FA cup there's a risk your gonna lose that". Looking back at these 2 defeats he's spot on, we were favourites to lose them both so is it really that much of a surprise that we went out?

After looking around some other forums there seems to be a strong fan base that want Wenger out. I personally don't think at this current moment that will help the squad at all. Having said that I am getting bored of being United's whipping boys every season. There's no point sending Wenger on his way this late in the season we're either gonna win the league with him or we aren't. If we win then everyone will be singing his praises, if we don't everyone will want him out but such is the nature of football.

Prediction: West Brom 0-1 Arsenal