The more I am thinking of tomorrow's game, the more I am thinking about where the difference could be, someone to create something out of nothing and someone to step up for Chelsea to be the difference. I believe the with the news on Frank Lampard yesterday being out, I am not sure if Ramires will play next to Mikel and Essien, and I think it is too much of a big game for McEachran in Ancelotti's eyes, so I believe Kalou will get the nod tomorrow to start.

Sitting watching the United v Arsenal game last night highlighted one thing for me and that is the fact that Chelsea should have nothing to fear in the next two games. It was a good game last night but there were two very important things to note last night. Arsenal, as against us couldn't find their way through and play that killer pass forward and United looked leggy and tired in the second half even though they didn't play in the Premier League last week.

Did you watch the big game? Barcelona were amazing. Zonal Marking has a good overview here.

Which got me thinking... Barca played without a centre-forward again. We haven't got a centre-forward. Not really. So if it works, it fits, why not use it? Zonal Marking kindly broke down the Barca formation so I've borrowed from that, using my own state of the art graphics.

On the first pass play of the game, Brett Favre went back to pass and got creamed. Favre wouldn't be able to re-enter the game. Tarvaris Jackson replaced Favre and threw a pick-six on his first series. However, Jackson regrouped and led the Vikings to an impressive 38-14 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

Lineups are in:

Arsenal: Starters: Fabianski, Koscielny, Squillaci, Gibbs, Sagna, Song, Denilson, Nasri, Arshavin, van Persie (c), Chamakh Bench: Szczesny, Rosicky, Vela, Walcott, Wilshere, Eboue, Bendtner

Partizan: Starters: Stojkovic, Medo, Petrovic, Cleo, Moreira, Jovanovic, Savic, Lazevski, Krstajic, Ilic, Babovic Bench: Ilic, Stankovic, Brasanac, Davidov, Kizito, Illiev, Smiljanic

Three points.

Ahead of Manchester United's big game against Arsenal on Monday, the Red Devil's winger, Luis Nani had nothing but praise for their future opponent claiming that the Gunners will be United's biggest thread this season instead of Chelsea.

The Portuguese international believe that Arsene Wenger's side this season have more that it takes to challenge for the title while the Blues are not looking so well especially since Carlo Ancelotti's boys are having such a bad run in the league recently.

After writing my match preview earlier, we have then found out the news that Frank Lampard will not feature in the game on Sunday as Carlo feels he needs to give him match practice.
With Spurs being such a big big game for us right now we need to put out our strongest side with the players we have available.

Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri confessed he is a "little bit surprised" to see the Gunners top of the table despite suffering four defeats this season. Speaking to the Club's official website ahead of today's big game ...

Tweet

Wenger Continues To Defy Critics!

Ahead of the big game tonight, we @11G decided to do a bit of mood check in our opponents camp and this is what we found out..

Check our perspective here - Rival Rendezvous: The Gunner Perspective On United Vs Arsenal (by Akhil)

Q.

Tweet

Wenger Continues To Defy Critics!

Ahead of the big game tonight, we @11G decided to do a bit of mood check in our opponents camp and this is what we found out..

Check our perspective here - Rival Rendezvous: The Gunner Perspective On United Vs Arsenal (by Akhil)

Q.

We're covering the big game tonight live, follow the action (and join in on the banter) below:

Live Text: Man United vs Arsenal

"Manchester United v Arsenal: Live Blog" was originally published at Red Rants - Manchester United Blog.

It's hard to know where to begin. Another big game, another poor performance and another trip home with 0 points.

It was not by any standards a feast of football. United were set up to deny Arsenal time and space and they did it ruthlessly well. The only answer to that kind of system is serious hard work and I can't avoid the feeling this morning that we didn't do enough of that.

Manchester United 1-0 Arsenal

Another big game, another defeat, and the unwelcome stat about our record against Chelsea and Man Utd can be dusted down, edited and bandied about. I'll spare you the pain of repeating it but it doesn't make pretty reading.

I was confident, if we played as we are capable of playing, that we would give Utd a very good game last night.

Young Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey is ready to continue his rapid development against FC Utrecht this evening.
The 18-year-old has already made eight appearances for Roy Hodgson's side this season, and is set to be handed another start against the Dutch outfit at Anfield tonight.
"It's a big game for us young lads," he says.

It comes as no surprise that Sir Alex Ferguson has started the mind games already ahead of Sunday's game by digging the knife in about our poor form in recent weeks.
Fergie is quoted as saying the following:

"Ballack's contract came to an end. Belletti's contract came to an end.

Sir Alex Ferguson has reflected upon this weekend's game against Chelsea, following a steep decline in performances and results from our title rivals.

People have been using John Terry's injury as an excuse for Chelsea's poor form of late, although it is important to point out that Rio Ferdinand has missed just as many games for United through injury.

Big game on Sunday, huge game in fact. Absolutely massive. Well maybe not quite that big but being at the sharp end of the table this season has meant all our games have been important and this one's no different. It's the one the travelling army have been waiting for so they can tick Bloomfield Road off their grounds visited list, but it also has the potential to be one of this seasons best games.

The weather in England has caused havoc with this weekends Premier League games and several have been cancelled including tomorrow's big game between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Today's Barclays Premier League matches at Arsenal, Birmingham, Liverpool and Wigan have all been postponed due to the weather.

The weather in England has caused havoc with this weekends Premier League games and several have been cancelled including tomorrow's big game between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Today's Barclays Premier League matches at Arsenal, Birmingham, Liverpool and Wigan have all been postponed due to the weather.

SPANISH FOOTBALL & Round 16 Spanish League - La Liga action continued tonight with four intense games. Here is the habitual quick review of all four encounters with the results & the scorers. Big game from Tiago tonight for Atletico ATLETICO DE MADRID visited MALAGA & managed to get away with a 0 - 3 victory.

I'm burning up some vacation time with an extended midwinter nap on required furlough, so they'll be no column Tuesday (or next week for that matter) and blogging over the holidays will be minimal unless events warrant.

The weekend's EPL action, including Sunday's big game between Manchester United and Chelsea, was frozen out, but today's Manchester City-Everton game (noon ESPN2) is on.

Tevez making up with officials. Best way to do it with the fans is to score some goals.

1:00 It is cold enough to reconfigure the anatomy on a brass monkey out there and yet shorts and short sleeves for most of the players. The fancy ones though are wearing a snood (see Spurs players sporting the latest trend)!

As we eagerly await Monday's big game against Chelsea, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family. 2010 was a big year for us at The Gunning Hawk ...

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes the Gunners should not be envious of Chelsea as the two teams get ready to face each other on Monday. Speaking ahead of the big game, the Frenchman understands Arsenal's lack ...

A visit to the official site today is met with standard pre-big game fare. There's no need for us to envy Chelsea's recent high school prom queen like purple patch compared to our imitation of a barren middle aged history teacher. Games between the Big Four won't necessarily decide where the title ends up.

I, for one, am more than a little bit tired of telling people that Arsenal are finally going to perform in a big game, only to have it thrown back in my face.
The statistics of our recent matches against Chelsea and Man United are more damning than anything I can say, even in criticism of Theo Walcott: in our last 11 games against the pair of them we've managed one draw and 10 defeats, with just five goals scored and a whopping 23 conceded.

I can't tell you what a relief it is not to wake up the morning after a big game feeling like a used tampon. I feel like ripping out AC/DC power chord solos, but unluckily find only a keyboard (not the musical one) in front of me at the moment. So I'll lock up that momentary musical urge for livening up funerals, and give you a detailed account of Chelsea's funeral instead.

Tweet

After taking my very small break for Christmas unlike the Arsenal team, I had very little time for the pre-match build up against Chelsea. My day drew to a close minutes before kick off. A more than hectic day at work and I told myself that the reward I was going to get for it, was a win and three points.

Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1
This is the blog post which I've wanted to write for so long. To painfully rip of Barack Obama, based on Monday's match, change has come to Arsenal.
It's very hard to say if this match will be the turning-point in the development of this team. But it's the first time we've really outplayed United or Chelsea in a long time.

Often when I don't have time to write about a match, the review comes a day late. The trouble with this time of year is that a day late is another matchday, and the focus has already switched. And rightly so fantastic as Monday's emphatic victory over Chelsea was, we cannot dwell on it. Tonight sees a return to Wigan, a match that last season epitomised our every flaw, going 2-0 up, thinking the match was over and losing 3-2.

Bit of transfer news to start with...

I was told by a reliable source last night that Arsenal are keeping their eyes on one transfer target in January and it is 50/50 whether they make a move for him, the only other information is that available to me is the nationality and age of the target German and 25 no other information has been made available to me on that front.

Lineups are in:

Wigan: Starters: Al Habsi, Stam, Caldwell, Alcaraz, Gohouri, Thomas, Diame, Cleverley, Watson, N'Zogbia, Rodallega Bench: Pollitt, Boselli, Steven Caldwell, Gomez, McArthur, Figueroa, McManaman

Arsenal: Starters: Fabianski, Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Rosicky, Denilson, Arshavin, Eboue, Chamakh, Bendtner, Diaby Bench: Szczesny, Nasri, Vela, Walcott, Wilshere, Djourou, Clichy

We're without Cesc today who is probably curled up in a blanket at home watching on his tv after picking up his 5th yellow card on Monday.

If your fantasy football league plays in Week 17, here are some sleepers that should interest you. Week 17 is difficult because most NFL teams don't have anything to play for. For that reason, we see a lot of backups get extended action. That said, you can feel confident starting one of these fantasy football players.