At 16:00 hours GMT Arsenal and Chelsea will do battle in front of 60,000 spectators at Emirates Stadium, N5, London, Great Britain. The county which hosts the encounter boasts the name ‘great’ and Arsenal will hope three points will keep them on track to earning that name for themselves.

Arsène Wenger’s unshaken belief in his ideology is admirable in today’s society but the Frenchman does not want plaudits, he wants trophies. Four years since he last tasted victory champagne, the hunger, you sense, is beginning to turn into an obsession for success.

Chelsea make the trip across London in superb form. Rejuvenated under Carlo Ancelotti, they are the team to beat. Before a ball has even been kicked the Blues hold an eight-point advantage while their defence is among the best in the world. A struggling Arsenal could be easy pickings for such a rampant and efficient outfit.

The bookmakers will have you know that this game is more of a David versus Goliath ( ) clash rather than a battle between two talented and capable sides. The recent David Haye v Nikolai Valuev boxing match was a recent example of this, as 7 foot monster Valuev faced a youthful and lightweight Haye in what many believed was a formality.

But what this taught us, was nothing was impossible. Haye arrived for the fight in a confident manner. He refused to belive what the world was telling him, that a youthful, smaller, light weight could defeat such a beast. Yet he got the tactics spot on, he fought to his strengths, weathered some shaky moments and delivered the knock out blows at key times. Haye claimed success. David overcame injuries and the odds to slay Goliath, and the Gunners can do the same.

If Arsenal play to their strengths, they can emulate the above achievement and claim glory. Chelsea are a defensive side who punish mistakes, we must show no weaknesses and play how we want to. If we keep the intensity high, move the ball quickly and ask questions of a sometimes static Chelsea back four, this game is very much winnable.

I see this fixture as a real test of whether Wenger’s boys can walk the walk, rather than simply talk the talk. 90 minutes against our rivals will truly tell us everything. Potential can only be potential for so long, this, this is the time to deliver.

Well, here we go, I can finally put all my energies and thoughts into a game that has been playing on my mind for the last week at the very least. I am not one for thinking about games in advance when we are in the middle of a football match but I found myself day dreaming about the Chelsea game when Standard Liege were running around chasing red and white shadows.

Arsene Wenger has said that William Gallas may not be available due to a swollen eye that he picked up from the hard head of Andrey Arshavin but I am not willing to believe that Gallas will be ruled out for our most important game of the season so far. I expect the Arsenal staff to be working around the clock to get our former captain ready to face his old team mates.

I keep hearing that should Arsenal not win the game then we will kiss goodbye to the title, well flip the two clubs and points total around, would you say we had won the league just by inflicting defeat on the opposition? I doubt that a handful of Gooners would be so quick to rule them out so I expect the same judgement to be applied to Arsenal.

A possible eleven points difference would be difficult to claw back but with four months of the season to go it would be far from impossible especially when Chelsea have to play many top sides away from home as well as at Stamford Bridge.

As usual during these big clashes, I am looking forward to the head to head matches around the pitch. Much has been spoken of the Essien vs Song battle but in truth both players will be detailed to stop the more creative players. I will guess that Cesc will have a difficult time on Sunday afternoon with Michael Essien surely detailed to stop the Spaniard from getting enough time to lift his head and pick a pass. Carlo Ancelotti will remember how Cesc Fabregas ran the show at the San Siro against his Ac Milan side, and he certainly will not want to make that mistake again.

Alex Song will pick up either Joe Cole or Deco, whichever player that will be at the top of Chelsea's diamond midfield. I expect Mikel to mirror Song and sit ahead of his captain John Terry with Essien and Lampard doing all they can to stop the ball getting forward to the Arsenal attacking trio.

We could exploit Ivanovic down their right side of the pitch. Arshavin will be looking to run inside him and either Traore or Eboue could get some joy in overlapping on the left side. It will not be as easy as that as I am sure the Chelsea coaching staff will make sure their central midfield players cover that space.

Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Denilson, Song, Cesc and Arshavin are all going to start if fit, you can bet your mortgage on that. The only possible questions that Wenger may have to think about is at left back, central striker and right attack.

I think that Wenger will continue with Armand Traore at left back, he played at Sunderland and it is not like Wenger not to give a player another chance to prove himself. Also playing Eboue or Sagna at left back would upset the balance in defence and attack as both players are right footed players.

Eduardo is probably the more likely starter and I like the Crozilian a lot but I liked what Vela brought to the side against Standard Liege, admittedly weaker opposition.

I like Vela's speedy mobility, his unpredictability and his sheering pace. Pace that the likes of John Terry and Carvalho would struggle to deal with if found out of position.

This is the only part of the their game that frightens me. In the past Chelsea have sat quite deep against us and we have pushed forward and probed and they have exploited long balls over the top of our full backs and long towards Drogba. We will have spells where we have most of the ball and we will be looking to score goals, it is important that Gallas and Vermaelen are not isolated against Drogba and more importantly Anelka with space in behind because we will be punished. This is where I expect Denilson and Song to be absolutely vital for us.

Our last defeat at the Emirates came at the hands of Chelsea, the strangest and most surreal defeat I think I have ever encountered as a supporter. A crushing 4-1 loss against a side that we battered. How can that be? On another day, a day where our attacking players were clinical then we could have beaten Chelsea 4-1. We could and definitely should have been out of sight before they scored from a freekick that never was.

Make no mistake, if we are once again wasteful against Chelsea then we will be punished. I want us to take our first good chance of the game. I do not want us to find our range after curling an effort wide then blasting high or hitting the keeper instead of lifting it over him.

If that happens then the football gods will dish out the usual punishment. A scrappy goal conceded on the first half chance that Chelsea muster.

Рулевой лондонского «Арсенала» Арсен Венгер верит, что в ближайшее время один из лидеров «канониров» Андрей Аршавин справится с психологическими проблемами, возникшими у него в связи с неудачным выступлением сборной России в стыковых матчах отборочного цикла ЧМ-2010 против команды Словении.

Напомним, что наша сборная сенсационно уступила словенцам по сумме двух встреч, выиграв первый матч на своем поле со счетом 2:1, но уступив в ответном поединке - 0:1.

«Аршавин очень расстроен, - рассказал Венгер в интервью официальному сайту «Арсенала». - Он вернулся после матчей со Словенией крайне подавленным, поэтому я решил оставить его в запасе в поединке против «Сандерленда» на прошлой неделе. Всем хочется, чтобы футболисты были сосредоточены только на игре, однако такое бывает, что ребята тяжело переживают поражения. Аршавин - капитан российской сборной; ему сейчас 28 лет. На следующем мировом первенстве Андрею будет уже 33».

В то же время наставник лондонцев считает, что россиянин сумеет справиться с трудностями: «У Аршавина дух победителя, и психологически он весьма стойкий человек. Андрей преодолеет все трудности. Конечно, нет ничего удивительного в том, что он расстроен из-за неудачи своей национальной сборной», - заключил Венгер.