A lot has been made about tonight’s game, and it is something I am really looking forward to. Which ever way you look at it, it is a massive game. The team that usually tops the Premier League table at Christmas goes on to win the title, so that’s something big to aim for. But like in life, things are never straight forward and for that to happen, we need to overcome a Chelsea side managed by Jose Mourinho.

It has been well-reported that in the previous nine matches between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, the Arsenal manager has failed to win a single encounter. And this season in the Capital One cup when the two “reserve” sides met, Arsene was clearly out of his depth tactically. Arsenal never looked like winning that game and Chelsea never looked like losing it.

The problem we have tonight is that although Jose Mourinho has been moaning recently about dominating games but not scoring enough goals (because of his misfiring strikers), that makes no difference to tonights game. Like it or not, Mourinho knows exactly how to play against an Arsene Wenger side and the way they play, they can use their tactics and formation to score from midfield. Against us earlier in the season, it was Juan Mata and Cesar Azpilicueta who scored the decisive goals.

The other argument for Chelsea getting a result against us is that we’ve only had “two big games this season” and lost them both – against Manchester United and Manchester City. While I’ll admit that we were well below par in both of those games, we have still beaten Liverpool, Napoli, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham this season, so I don’t necessarily agree with that sentiment.

But I do think this is a massive test for Arsenal. If we want to believe we can win the Premier League title this year then for me, this is a must win game. Some will say it’s just 3 points and we’d still be within touching difference but if Chelsea win it will give them a huge amount of confidence going into the new year, and that is something we don’t want. Because of the results the way they’ve gone this weekend, if Chelsea do win then we could finish the weekend 4th in the table, after being top for most of the season.

So how is Arsene going to play this tonight?

Mourinho is a clever manager who doesn’t think twice about making radical changes to his team during any time of a match.

And they have the players with quality in their squad who can hurt us from anywhere.

You would have to think that Arsenal will have to put in the performance of their lives tonight to convincingly get the win. It will have to be a complete performance where no-one makes any mistakes – because as we saw in the Capital One Cup, any mistakes we make will be taken advantage of.

Against most sides in the league, we could go toe to toe with them and give them a game, but with Chelsea, they are dangerous, intelligent and unfortunately for us, they will raise their game for their visit to The Emirates and won’t be putting in a below par performance like they did against Sunderland in midweek.

As it stands, Arsenal are top on goal difference and the head to head record, but all three teams (Arsenal, Dortmund and Napoli) are on 6 points, with Marseille still yet to get off the mark.

Our remaining games are Borussia Dortmund tonight in Germany, as well as an away trip to Napoli and Marseille at The Emirates. You would think that around 10 points would be enough to go through to the knockout stages and with Arsenal playing the best football in a long time, and our excellent form in the Premier League, Arsene Wenger would love to see how far this team could go in the competition.

But whatever happens tonight, we shouldn’t be upset if Arsenal lose at the Westfalenstadion.

We finally have a team that is good enough to compete at the top, whether be that domestically or in Europe. But some perspective is needed really. Yes, we probably should have settled for a draw in the home game a couple of weeks ago but that’s one of the reasons why Arsenal are 5 points clear at the top of the table – they’re a team that will always try to win. What if Arsenal did nick a winner against Dortmund? We’d be raving about it.

The fact is, if we lose or draw tonight we could still do it. We’d have to beat both Napoli and Marseille and hope results would go for us. But don’t forget, even though they no longer have Mario Gotze, we are up against an exceptionally talented side here. They went all the way to the Champions League Final last season and have one of the best players around at the moment in Robert Lewandowski. There would be no shame in losing to a side that knocked out sides such as Real Madrid and high-spending Malaga. And they also got out of a group that consisted of Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax.

The odds are against us tonight and obviously I would love nothing more than a win – that would set us up nicely going into the final two games – but some perspective is needed. We are in one hell of a tough group and even if we couldn’t beat Dortmund it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are in far, far easier groups and the fact that we are in with a shout is impressive.

A win tonight would be a massive result but by the same token a defeat is not the end of the world. We have a squad that is good enough to win major honours this season and that’s all we can ask for.

Our performances and results this season has been sensational, but there’s no denying that of late we’ve had a dip in form. We’ve lost to Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea in recent weeks, and although the first could be put down to being “too naive”, and the second down to being in a competition we “don’t care about”, then fact is we made the same old silly mistakes which we used to make in seasons gone by.

A draw against Dortmund would have been an excellent result but we got caught with a sucker punch on the break. Some will say we were unlucky but without Mathieu Flamini we are susceptible to conceding the type of goal where we are caught out at the back, and concede from a break from the opposing team.

It happened when Robert Lewandowski scored, and again without Flamini against Crystal Palace, we found ourselves hugely exposed on the break. This time however, Arteta and Chamakh collided and the break was stopped but this highlighted the huge gap we have without Flamini’s defensive positioning and energy.

Against Chelsea, they were happy to sit back and catch us on the break. You can argue all your like about the negative tactics of other teams, but the fact is it’s a simple tactic that works well against Arsenal – without Mathieu Flamini in the side.

It is no coincidence that the games we lost (Chelsea and Dortmund) where home games – games we are expected to have the majority of the attacking possession. Without Mathieu in the side we are exposed at the back and even against Crystal Palace, even though it was an away game it’s a game where we had most of the ball.

So the huge question is can Arsenal learn their lesson?

We play Liverpool at The Emirates and we don’t have Mathieu Flamini in the side. If Brendan Rodgers was looking for a gameplan it’s pretty obvious what it would be. They have Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in fantastic form and both strikers are very very quick. In Steven Gerrard they have a top top quality player (see what I did there) who can ping 40 yard through passes with extremely accuracy.

So if Arsenal don’t learn their lessons then Liverpool are more than capable of picking us off. If that happens, I can see us losing this game 3-1.

If we had Flamini, I would be much more confident. In fact I wouldn’t be worried at all, because with him we are a different beast. But with the obvious and massive deficiency in our team I am extremely concerned about today’s game.

Because even though it’s only the 10th game of the season, it’s a marker for our whole campaign. Sure, it’s just three points at the end of the day but for the last two seasons our record against the Top 6 has been nothing short of dreadful. It’s terribly poor and winning tomorrow’s game would put some of those demons to bed and give our squad a massive boost of confidence going into the rest of the season. But if we lose (which is a possibility) then all the talk will be about Arsenal having the same old problems with the inability to beat any of the top sides.

The only “top” side we’ve beaten this season is Napoli so why should Liverpool have anything to fear?

With Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukas Podolski and Abou Diaby still out with long term injuries, and Mathieu Flamini out for the next couple of weeks, our options in midfield and attack are somewhat limited.

Olivier Giroud is the only option up front but he looks burnt out at the moment. The way he collapsed after the final whistle against Crystal Palace summed up the huge effort and dedication he has in this Arsenal team. He has been simply awesome this season, and needs someone to come in a ease the burden.

The back five selects itself, so it’s the options in midfield Arsene has to choose. We don’t have Mathieu Flamini so who should the boss pick alongside Mikel Arteta? The only options are Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey has played in the “deeper” role before but while he has the engine to do that job his natural instinct is to go forward and that has left us exposed at the back, so he would be better further up the field with Jack the one sitting a bit deeper. Plus Jack puts himself about a bit more and isn’t afraid to make a tackle.

And the rest of the team selects itself. With Ramsey in the more advanced midfield role, Ozil and Cazorla make up the attacking backup for Olivier Giroud.

The game will be won and lost where Mikel and Jack are playing. If Liverpool are going to hurt is it will be on the break – that’s how Dortmund punished us, Crystal Palace caused problems (which lead to the Arteta red card) and Chelsea were happy to sit back and get us on the counter attack.

Will we learn our lesson and not be so defensively naive? We’ll find out today.

Jose Mourinho has been moaning (there’s a surprise) about tonight’s Capital One Cup fixture, saying the competition favours Arsenal because they played on a Sunday and we played on a Saturday. Yawn.

It’s a tactic designed to take all the pressure off Chelsea and put it on Arsenal. But the fact is that Chelsea are favourites to progress. I don’t necessarily think that Chelsea’s best starting eleven is better than Arsenal’s first choice eleven, but because it is the Capital One Cup then Arsene will do what he always does and play some of the younger players, and rightly so in my opinion.

Also, Chelsea have a formidable squad and their “second team” still contains top players such as Juan Mata, Willian, Demba Ba, Michael Essien, David Luiz, Samuel Eto’o and Kevin De Bruyne. Make no mistake, Mourinho would absolutely love to win this game and will give everything to get a victory over Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger on the other hand, has other priorities. We have Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United in quick succession. Why would he risk injury to our top players with a vital run in like that? And playing Chelsea at home is an experience that the youngsters will relish.

Expect it to be a tight game for about an hour, and then Chelsea’s experience and power will shine through in the end.

I would love nothing more for Arsenal to stage a surprise and shove it in Mourinho’s face, but I just can’t see it happening.

Prediction? 2-1 to Chelsea.