All those who are calling 4-4-2, does anyone remember the last time we played Arsenal using a 4-4-2, how they dominated possession? With better attackers they would have won that game. You cannot allow Arsenal a spare man in Central midfield as they will knock it to him all the time. Not to mention Van Persie comes deep to help out a lot. Arsenal will probably line up like this:
========================Szczesny===========================
Sagna==========Djourou===============Vermaelen===========Gibbs
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==============Rosicky================Arteta=================
Chamberlain==============Van Pervert==================Gervinho==
Having just Modric and Parker in midfield would be a stupid idea. Whilst they both have lots of stamina, they don't have the pace to keep up against 3 Cms, given that song also likes to run through the middle with the ball at times. Chamberlain I think that BAE will be able to handle him, he's very good with trickier players and has the pace to keep up. Gervinho vs walker will be a battle, Walker gets skinned easily by trickery rather than pace and Gervinho has lots of it.
Van pervert, we know what he can do, fingers crossed King is back to deal with him. Ideally what we should be doing is forcing arsenal to hit us with diagonal balls or lofted crosses. Never let them get to the byline as Van Persie is dangerous at finding space and we are very vunerable. We should line up with both Bale and Lennon supporting Adebayor with a midfield of Modric and Parker plus Sandro or Livermore if he is unavailable. This will allow us to dominate midfield, ideally if we were home I would have Krancjar in their instead of Parker but we need Parker's fighting spirit for away games.
Most importantly, mentally, Arsenal will be very up for this. Wenger has never failed to get his players, even the foreign ones, fired up for the derby. And given their recent run of form they may have a rocket up their collective arses. We need to be up for this game from the off.