Can Arsenal do its part to restore lustre to the rivalry with Manchester United?

Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck will face his old club when Manchester United visit the Emirates

Going into the start of the season, this fixture stood out as a finish line of sorts, a marker against which we could measure our progress after roughly one-third of the season gone. The latter half of this still stands although for reasons a bit different from what we anticipated: instead of vying with Manchester United for supremacy atop the EPL, we each need a win from this match just to keep alive our hopes of finishing somewhere in the top five.

Both clubs have been decimated by injuries, but unlike United, it's starting to look like we're on the mend. Giroud is available, and even if Walcott has suffered a setback, it looks like Alexis and Welbeck will come through late fitness tests. Despite a few disappointing results at our end, it's starting to feel like we're about to find some form after staggering and sleepwalking through the first third of the season.

This is not the start that either squad had hoped for. At our end, invigorated by the arrival of Alexis and buoyed by the hopes that we would replicate last season’s blistering start, to sit 12 points out of first is a bit of a shock. We have been undone by injuries even earlier than usual but have done ourselves few favors, frittering away points we should have salted away instead.

At the other end, United have been either parable or parody, either warning or amusing us with what can happen when a club fails to invest in its own long-term development. United might have the most-expensive squad in the EPL, but – wait for it – they have far too many creative, attacking types, not nearly enough gritty defenders, and are only an injury or two away from disaster.

While we might lament the absences of key players, we’re actually hale and healthy in comparison to United, who might have as many as eleven players unavailable come Saturday. We know with some certainty that Rojo, Rafael, and Blind are ruled out, but it’s possible that Shaw, Jones, Carrick, Di Maria, Falcao, Evans, Young and de Gea could all miss out as well.

Of them, the most important might be de Gea, whose broken finger not only denies United the services of one of the best goalkeepers in the EPL but forces them to send out Anders Lindegaard, who has made only 19 appearances for the club since coming over in 2010.

Still, injuries and form matter little in a fixture such as this; perhaps no rivalry is as steeped in history or enmity as this one (sorry, Tottenham, but you’re more like a pest than a rival). We haven’t beaten United in our last six outings, and this might feel like the first time in a decade that we have a right to believe that we should win. However, any squad that features Rooney and Van Persie is not to be taken lightly, and both sides will want to prove a point while claiming all three.

Speaking of points to prove, I wonder if this is the match when Welbeck shows that he can perform when the chips are down. Against his former club, the one he thought he’d play for from a young age, will he seize the opportunity to show Van Gaal and the Mancunians just what they’ll be missing?

LAST 3:

• Arsenal 0-0 Man Utd (12-02-2014)
• Man Utd 1-0 Arsenal (10-11-2013)
• Arsenal 1-1 Man Utd (28-04-2013)

FACTFILE

• The clubs first met on 13 October 1894, a 3-3 draw.
• Man Utd have failed to win in their last seven away matches in the Prem.
• Arsenal have never defeated Man U when Mike Dean presides (four matches).

INJURIES: Debuchy, Koscielny, Özil, Ospina, Arteta, and Diaby have all been ruled out.

POSSIBLE STARTING XI: Szczesny; Gibbs, Monreal, Mertesacker, Chambers; Flamini, Ramsey; Cazorla, Alexis, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Welbeck.

I’m going out on a limb to suggest that a certain 8-2 scoreline, while not entirely reversed, will be avenged.