Arsenal welcome Fenerbahçe to the Emirates Stadium later this evening in the Champions League Group G Fixture, which is live on Sky Sports Xtra.

The Gunners recently ran all over Fener in the reverse fixture and many thought that this could well be Arsenal’s year for Champions League sucess, but recent flops in their domestic league have since seen a lot of people retract that view.

A 4-4 draw against North London rivals Spurs - who are currently bottom of the Premier League - was the beginning of a bad week for Arsenal and that was followed up by an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to League newcomers Stoke City. Confidence must be at an all time low for the Arsenal players going into this match and a much improved performance is expected from the Emirates giants.

There was more bad news for Gunners boss Wenger too as Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Adebayor, William Gallas and Emmanuel Eboue all miss tonights game due to injuries while Bacary Sagna is set to start after brushing off an ankle injury.

However, despite the missing players Arsenal are pretty much through to the next stage of the tournament and Wenger believes that the sooner this is achieved the sooner he can start planning an assault on the top three teams in the Prem.

As for The Turks, well, they have had a miserable season so far both at home as well as in Europe and their new coach Luis Aragones who guided Spain to Euro 2008 victory has been receiving plenty of criticism recently. However there is some good news for the club as they have finally found their winning form and won two out of their three games in Turkish Super League recently.

Predicted Arsenal Line-Up:

Almunia
Sagna - Toure - Silvestre - Clichy
Denilson - Fabregas - Diaby - Nasri
Bendtner - van Persie

Match Prediction: Arsenal 3-0 Fenerbahçe

Catch all the post-match reaction and player ratings here on Gooner Talk seconds after the final whistle.

Leave your views and predictions of tonights game in the comments section below.

It was last spring that the Gunners season was on the line, when they had do or die matches. This season it comes in November. Manchester United, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea are our next opponents in the Premier League. Ironically it comes at just the time when half the team is injured or suspended. Walcott, Sagna, Adebayor, van Persie, Gallas, Eboue, Rosicky, Eduardo are all to some degree damaged goods. We don’t know when they’ll be available and at what level of fitness.

It all seemed so easy in August. A quick glance at the schedule and I thought we had a great chance to break ahead of the pack. Losses to Fulham, Hull and Stoke! Draws with Sunderland and Tottenham. Yes, we’ve screwed up but the team needs to refocus now or else we’ll be in the middle of the table by early December. While Gunner fans are angry and frustrated, they need to support the team at this moment or else it could get a lot worse.

Certain players need to step up their games and show they have the quality to play for Arsenal. Bendtner, in particular, needs to show he deserves the playing time he craves. He’ll probably lead the line for most of November, a perfect opportunity to show what he’s got to offer.

Cesc Fabregas needs to up his game as well. So far this season he hasn’t played his best. We desperately need him to produce. We need Nasri to step up as well. He could be our only genuine wide player for several games and we need the width he can provide.

Song, Diaby and Denilson need to play their best as well. I suspect Wenger will play Song in tough away games and Denilson in the home games. Diaby will probably feature as a fifth midfielder in our away games, similar to the role he played against Fenerbahce.

Wenger should consider playing Djourou in the centre of the defense. Why he didn’t play against Stoke I don’t quite know. Perhaps he should even consider him to play the holding midfielder role (which Djourou has said he’d like to play).  The defense needs to pull itself together for these key games. They also need Almunia to take control of the penalty area and show he’s worthy to play in goal for Arsenal.

Will they succeed? Will they succeed and then blow it against a weaker team in December? I don’t know, but the season stands on the edge of a precipice and they need to come together right now. This is time for Arsene Wenger to earn his salary.