Everton (A)

Once again apologies for not posting before the Villa match, I have been rather busy recently. I will however give you a brief rundown of what went wrong, in my opinion. Well firstly we rested a couple of key players in Sagna and Wilshere, both who have come back from injury. Wilshere gives us a sort of spark in the midfield, especially when he links with Cazorla, we look threatening. The reason for resting them is clearly because they have both just come back from long term injuries, but I can't help but feel it just highlighted the lack of depth in squad. 

The core of our team is strong: Arteta, Cazorla, Wilshere, Diaby. But who have we got when they are fatigued or in Diaby's case, injured. Nobody of that quality. I feel the need for a few players in January just to ease the pressure on some of our regulars. A striker to ease the mountain of pressure on Giroud and a couple of midfielders to free our main 3 when they are fatigued and in the English league, the game is intense and with midweek cup and CL games, players who are getting on or aren't used to it will struggle with fitness. I will briefly touch on Wenger's choice of substitution to take Giroud off for Coquelin really must have set the tone for the rest of the side, "we're going for a draw". I don't think it was the right move but I think Wenger had half on eye on the game tomorrow night. 

Talking of tomorrow night, we face a long and difficult trip up to Goodison Park, where Everton had a good start to the season but have wobbled over the last few weeks. Everton are one of those sides who people have been talking about as to whether they will make the top 4. For me they just don't have the depth for that, when they are all fit and firing they are a very good side, but when they lose a couple of key players, they seem to lose some of their threat. 

Walcott is set to return for us and I expect him to start and see out Alex OC. Likewise with Sagna and Wilshere who were both rested, I would expect all of them to return to start with the Ox, Ramsey and Jenkinson missing out. Whether Vermaelen will return to the start is a bit of a hit and miss, Koscielny could fall back to the bench or on the less likely, Vermaelen could return to left back at he expense of Gibbs. Mertesacker will remain in the team to try and counter some of the threat of Fellaini. The big German will have a busy game tomorrow, so lets hope he's on the ball.

Everton will see the return of their main man this season Fellaini who will sit behind Jealvic, so they have a powerful duo going forward. The pace will come from Naismith, on the right, who has been deadly this season and Pienaar on the left. Osman and Hitzlsperger will make up the rest of the midfield. At the back we will see Heitinga and Distin in the middle with Jagielka and Baines either side. I think down the right may be our best form of attack with Walcott yet again. Although Baines is a top class left back, he does like to go forward and in front of him he has Pienaar who isn't exactly defensive minded.

Tomorrow's game is a big one, a win will lift us above them and could put us 2 points behind Chelsea. If we want to keep up with the teams above us we need to kick on and win games like this. When I looked at Villa away and Everton away, I would have been happy with us to get 4 points from a possible 6, but as always with Arsenal we'll have to go about it the hard way. COYG!

Prediction: Everton 1-2 Arsenal