Arsenal v Huddersfield Town Preview

With Sunday's stroll in the park at Burnley fresh in our minds it's quickly back to Premier League action for Arsenal tomorrow night when they play at home to Huddersfield Town. That hard fought, and a little lucky, win at Burnley moved Arsenal above both Spurs and Liverpool and into the top four. They're still 12 points behind City, but they're only four points behind second placed United and there isn't an awful lot between the five teams trailing directly in City's wake.

Agsinst Burnley the team didn't show as much drive and commitment as they did to beat Spurs the previous week, but at least they managed to take the three points. Far too often when we aren't at our best we get punished by the opposition and it came close to that in what was a fairly even game on Sunday. We got the win though and thankfully some of the teams around us dropped points too.

Having played on Sunday there's a case for Arsene Wenger rotating the team a little and that might not be the worst idea when you consider United will come a calling on Saturday evening. That game at home to United is going to be another huge test for us and we need to go into it in the best position possible which means three points against Huddersfield are an absolute must. The players cannot go into the game thinking it will be easy though as it's never easy against any team in the Premier League.

We are on a great run at home with six wins out of six in the league this season and United are the only team who can match that 100% return on their own patch. We finished very strongly at home last season too and it's great to see us making the Emirates such a fortress. With our away form improving in the last few games we have some cause to be hopeful this season when it at least comes to trying to finish in the top four.

When it comes to the possible changes I suppose we could see Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck or maybe even Olivier Giroud come in from the start. With Mesut Ozil still unavailable there's a good chance Wilshere might play in his role after Alex Iwobi got the nod on Sunday. Wilshere has been patient this season as he has played in the lesser competitions and this could be the ideal time to give him a Premier League start. 

With Welbeck back from injury he could get the nod too, but it would probably be at the expense of Alexis Sanchez and I don't know how good an idea that might be. Welbeck is almost as injury prone as Wilshere and it's almost getting to the point where he can't really be considered as a proper first team option due to his consistent injuries. I hope he can get a good run without injuries, but like Wilshere I fear that boat might already have sailed.

I would be very surprised if Giroud came in instead of Lacazette because I have been far from impressed by him when he has played in the Europa League. Lacazette has scored most of his goals at home this season and he might get the chance to add to that tally tomorrow night against a team who are struggling badly on their travels. There's every chance we can put a few goals past Huddersfield if we're at the races and he's the man most likely to get those goals.

Huddersfield won their first away game 3-0 at Palace, but since then they have only taken one point in five away games and have failed to score in each of those games. They are there to be beaten and with the right performance they are there to be well beaten too. I'd love to see Arsenal put four or five goals past them, but I'll be happy with the three points ahead of United on Saturday.

How I'm going to get to see that match is another matter as I'm bringing my wife to New York for her birthday and the chances are we'll be in a department store at 12.30pm New York time on Saturday. Thankfully my Vodafone Red Plus subscription gives me internet coverage at a very good price in the States and I can at least keep up with the game. I don't like to ever miss an Arsenal game, but it's not every week that your wife turns 50 even if it coincides with us playing United.

Anyway enough of United for now as just like the players I need to concentrate on the job in hand which is Huddersfield tomorrow night. I'm plumping for an Arsenal win and a few goals to go with it and hopefully another clean sheet too. I read somewhere that Arsenal haven't conceded a goal yet this season when we have had our favoured three of Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Shkodran Mustafi in the center of defence so let's hope those three stay fit and continue to play together.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.