A chance to finish the year on a high

Our cramped festive schedule continues with a trip to high flying Newcastle tomorrow and it certainly won’t be easy. The Magpies have been doing better than expected this season and are comfortably sitting in the top half of the Premier League table. We regained top spot on Boxing Day with a win against West Ham and we’ll be looking to be build upon that and start another winning run. Manchester City won today meaning they’re top of the league by 2 points so it’s absolutely key that we achieve a win tomorrow.

The game will see the feisty battle of Wenger and Pardew resume. Pardew has previously criticised Wenger of the way his team plays and the way he goes about his business. The comment Alan Pardew made about foreign players in the Arsenal side a few years back now has become rather contradictory considering so many of the Geordie side’s team is filled with Frenchmen. Despite that though, Wenger has had the much stronger hand over Pardew and Newcastle in recent years. We’ve lost just one out of our last twelve encounters against them but they have been strong at home this season so they could be difficult to break down.

The main dangers will come from Loic Remy, a previous Arsenal target, Yoann Gouffran and Yohan Cabaye. All French players and all stand out players recently for the Toon. Remy scored twice in his last match and has been a brilliant loan signing from QPR. Gouffran meanwhile has 5 in his last 5 home games and Cabaye is in a rich vain of form having scored 3 in his last 3 matches. Cabaye of course was an Arsenal target in the summer and we even had a £15m bid rejected. In a way I hope he shows why we did indeed bid for him, but I’d rather he didn’t do it in this match.

Matches down the years between these two sides have often provided thrillers. The 4-4 draw at St James’ a few years back provides memories whilst our last game of 2012 saw us win 7-3. In that game, Theo Walcott scored a hat-trick and he is one of the League’s in form players. He’ll be looking to take advantage of his form and hopefully guide us to a successive league win. The last time we met them was our last game of the 2012/13 season when a win was needed in order to qualify for the Champions League, a game that proved that we can play under pressure and certainly grab a win in their own back yard.

We’ll have to go there and win without Aaron Ramsey though. He is expected to be out until the middle of January now following a thigh problem picked up against West Ham. This is a tough loss but not as tough as it would’ve been without us having a talented array of midfielders. Jack Wilshere is due to return from suspension and should finally get a chance to play in his preferred role as the deep lying play maker. There could be a few rested but Cardiff on New Year’s day, in my opinion, would be the chance to rest players ahead of the FA Cup tie against Spurs. Laurent Koscielny is 50/50 but expect Vermaelen to continue at centre half with Rosicky coming back into the squad after missing the West Ham game completely.

For the second year running a game against Newcastle will be our final game of the calendar year. During 2013 we have amassed the most amount of points out of all the Premier League sides, notching up a 79 point tally before Sunday’s fixture. This is a great chance to finish the year on a high and hopefully sit on top of the Premier League come 2014.