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.

Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal visit Premiership new-entrants Stoke City for Saturday’s Premiership game after their disappointment of squandering a two-goal lead to be held to a 4-4 draw in midweek’s north-London derby at home.

Gunners boss Wenger was left furious as his side failed to hold onto their 4-2 lead with few minutes left and Tottenham Hotspur scored two quick goals in the closing minutes to secure a point in a classic derby at the Emirates Stadium.

Injury News:

Third-placed Arsenal also suffered injury blow with skipper William Gallas ruled out for the Potters clash with a hamstring problem. Midfielder Emmanuel Eboue (knee) is also doubtful for the trip to the Britannia Stadium and will face a fitness test.

“It looks like Gallas will be out and maybe Eboue too,” Wenger said on Thursday.

“It is a little recurrence of the hamstring for William and for Manu it is his knee. He is not running properly at the moment. He still has pain.”

Almunia
Sagna -Toure - Silvestre - Clichy
Denilson - Fabregas - Song - Diaby
Adebayor - Bendtner

Tony Pulis’ side, who are 15th in the league table, have done well at home so far having scored wins against Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and the latest scalp was Roy Keane’s Sunderland, who lost 1-0 in midweek.

However, the Gunners will be hurting after the midweek draw and would be keen to clinch full points tomorrow to erase the Spurs memory. As such, Stoke can expect a big test from the traditional big-four side.

Match Prediction: Stoke City 1-2 Arsenal

Catch all the post-match reaction here on Gooner Talk.

New West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola has a tough task on his hands when West Ham United take on Arsenal in the Premier League at Upton Park tomorrow afternoon..

The Hammers go into this clash with Arsenal hoping to get back to winning ways after defeat in their last two matches against Hull City and Bolton Wanderers. West Ham are currently 8th in the Premiership, but have not won since a 2-1 victory against Fulham at Craven Cottage in September.

Arsene Wenger’s team will go into this London derby full of confidence, having beaten Everton 3-1 last weekend at the Emirates Stadium and humbling Fenerbahce 5-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday. Wenger will want his side to come away with all three points in what has been a tricky tie for the Gunners in recent times.

Injury News

Zola will be without striker Dean Ashton (trigonum syndrome) as well as defenders Jonathan Spector (thigh) and Danny Gabbidon (groin), with long-term absentee Kieron Dyer (broken leg) also to miss the visit of Arsenal.

Arsenal are set to welcome back defenders Kolo Toure and William Gallas, who have both recovered from injury, while Bacary Sagna (ankle) is not quite ready to return against the East London side. Eduardo (broken leg) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) are still on the side lines at the Emirates, though Eduardo should resume full training soon.

Predicted Line-Up’s

West Ham Predicted XI

Green
Neill - Upson - Collins - Ilunga
Behrami - Parker - Bowyer - Etherington
Di Michele - Cole

Arsenal Predicted XI

Almunia
Eboue - Toure - Gallas - Clichy
Walcott - Fabregas - Diaby - Nasri
Adebayor - van Persie

Match Prediction: West Ham United 1-2 Arsenal

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

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

A trip to Turkey is always a tough challenge for Premier League sides used to the relative calm of English grounds. And for Arsenal’s young team this is set to be a growing-up experience as they face the fierce Fenerbahce crowd.

Arsene Wenger has already ruled out injured captain William Gallas and fellow centre back Kolo Toure, but in Theo Walcott he has English football’s golden and a player able to unlock any defence. Emre Belözoglu, Deivid de Souza and Gökhan Gönül all missed Saturday’s league win over Kocaelispor for Fenerbahce.

After that match boss Luis Aragones said:

“I’m not happy with my players’ performances in the first half. However, they managed to get back and do what we had asked them to do.”

The Gunners remain unable to call on the services of Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) and Eduardo da Silva (broken ankle) but Abou Diaby is set to reclaim a starting place after impressing during the 3-1 over Everton.

Luckless Fenerbahce could be without the talented Gokhan Gonul. They are likely to with start with Spain powerhouse Daniel Guiza up front on his own and Semih Senturk in a supporting role.

Predicted Arsenal Line-Up:

Almunia
Eboue - Song - Silvestre - Clichy
Walcott - Fabregas - Diaby - Nasri
Adebayor - van Persie

Match Prediction: Fenerbahçe 1-3 Arsenal

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

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

Arsenal and Everton will both be looking to return to form when they lock horns at Emirates Stadium. The Gunners started the season in fine style before suffering a shock defeat at home to Hull at the end of last month. They came within moments of losing to Sunderland a week later, only rescuing a point when Cesc Fabregas headed home an injury-time equaliser.

Everton may be more focused now that manager David Moyes has at last ended the uncertainty about his future by signing a new long-term contract at Goodison Park this week. They need to be, because two League victories - both away from home - and early exits from two cup competitions have left the Toffees mired in anti-climax. And while Arsenal needed a Cesc Fabregas header three minutes into stoppage-time to rescue a point at the Stadium of Light in their most recent game, Everton tossed away a two-goal lead at home to Newcastle United in theirs. The point they had to settle for was their first at Goodison out of a possible 12.

Arsenal are unbeaten in 12 home games against Everton, who earned a solitary point from the last 36 they’ve contested on Arsenal turf. That was in a 1-1 draw on 28 October 2006 - their first visit to the Emirates. Two seasons earlier, at Highbury, Everton went down 7-0 to the Gunners in what wastheir heaviest ever away Premier League defeat. Last season, the corresponding fixture finished 1-0 in Arsenal’s favour, Nicklas Bendtner scoring the decisive goal on 77 minutes.

The Gunners remain unable to call on the services of Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) and Eduardo da Silva (broken ankle) but Abou Diaby and Mikael Silvestre return.

Predicted Line-Up:

Almunia
Eboue - Toure - Silvestre - Clichy
Denilson - Fabregas - Diaby - Nasri
Van Persie - Adebayor

Match Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Everton

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

Leave your views and predictions of this afternoon’s game in the comments section below.

Sunderland host Arsenal at the Stadium of Light in today’s 3:00 kick-off looking to follow the example set by Hull City last weekend.

The newly-promoted Tigers ripped up the formbook and made a mockery of the bookmakers who made them distant outsiders to take anything away from the Emirates Stadium as they left north London with a 2-1 victory.

That result has given the rest of the top-flight’s lesser lights belief that they too can compete on any given day with the top four and it’s fair to assume that Black Cats boss Roy Keane will have conveyed that to his players this week.

Injury concerns continue to hamper Keane’s plans though as he will once again be without Kenwyne Jones (knee), Teemu Tainio (shoulder), Nyron Nosworthy (hamstring) and possibly Phil Bardsley (ankle).

Arsene Wenger admitted he felt sickened by Arsenal’s ‘careless’ defeat at the hands of Hull, which also saw them relinquish their position at the top of the Premier League table to Chelsea.

However, the Frenchman was heartened by his side’s 4-0 Champions League thrashing of FC Porto on Tuesday night with Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin van Persie both bagging braces.

Domestically, Arsenal have now been beaten twice - which is just one less than the total number of losses they suffered during the entire 38 games of last year’s campaign - so Wenger knows any further slip-ups could be costly.

The Gunners remain unable to call on the services of Abou Diaby (thigh), Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) and Eduardo da Silva (broken ankle).

Predicted Starting XI

Almunia
Sagna - Toure - Gallas - Clichy
Walcott - Fabregas - Denilson - Nasri
Adebayor - van Persie

Match Prediction: Sunderland 1-3 Arsenal

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Leave your views and predictions of this afternoon’s game in the comments section below.

Arsene Wenger said he felt “physically sick” after Sunday’s shock defeat by Hull City but the Arsenal manager will be hoping to get his European campaign back on track with a win against Portuguese Champions FC Porto this evening.

The Gunners’ only previous home defeat to a newly promoted side was against West Ham in February 2006: in their next European game they recorded a famous 1-0 win at Real Madird to set them on the road to the quarter-finals and eventually the final in Paris.

France midfielder Samir Nasri returns to the squad for tonights clash with Porto.

Nasri has been out with a knee injury since late August but is available to face the Portuguese side.

Alex Song (hip) joins Tomas Rosicky, Abou Diaby, Amaury Bischoff and Eduardo in the treatment room.

Arsene Wenger has said he will make changes following the shock defeat by Hull, with Mikael Silvestre among those hoping for starts.

Predicted Starting XI

Almunia
Sagna - Toure - Gallas - Silvestre
Eboue - Fabregas - Denilson - Nasri
Adebayor - Bendtner

Match Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 FC Porto

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

Premier League leaders Arsenal take on surprise package Hull City at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

The Gunners are flying high at the top of the Premiership and take on top-flight debutantes Hull on the back of a 6-0 destruction of Championship side Sheffield United by their youngsters in the Carling Cup, but expect manager Arsene Wenger to bring back senior players for the visit of the Tigers.

Tigers boss Phil Brown faces his toughest task yet in the Premiership in trying to come away from the Emirates with something to show, but his Yorkshire side are unbeaten in their travels away from the KC Stadium this season and continue to surprise the many people who tipped them for relegation straight back down to the Championship.

Wenger is set to recall senior players like Cesc Fabregas and top-scorer Emmanuel Adebayor for the clash at the Emirates, but is still without long-term absentees Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) and Eduardo (broken leg) along with Abou Diaby (thigh). However, Arsenal could welcome back French International Samir Nasri from a knee injury, with new signing Mikael Silvestre possibly in line to make his Gunners debut.

Hull’s only injuries are to striker Craig Fagan (broken leg), and Anthony Gardner (thigh), with Daniel Cousin set to partner Marlon King in attack again for the Tigers at Arsenal.

Predicted Starting XI

Almunia
Sagna - Toure - Gallas - Clichy
Eboue - Fabregas - Denilson - Walcott
Adebayor - van Persie

Match Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Hull City

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

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