By Boris Mellor
December 10 2005

Wenger thought he could explain the Gunners poor away form by referring to the disruption of International breaks, and true enough once he had the team together for a few days they won at Wigan.

Then he had an easy week to prepare for Bolton, however the team played poorly to lose 2-0. Wenger called that an accident. There certainly were a few accidents on view, and Bolton grasped them. Some suggested we would have done better with Vieira – indeed we only lost 1-0 at Bolton last year with him.

It would appear that Wenger has given the accident some thought, as he tried to play 4-3-3 on Wednesday. But with youngsters and a lack of cohesion it feathered out as a disjointed 4-5-1. However who was the "one" was debatable, as at times Henry was far behind Reyes and Quincy.

One good thing to come out of Wednesday night was that Lauren can handle left back, and that’s probably where he will play on Tyneside. That leaves Arsene with deciding whom to play at right back. With Cygan injured Eboue and Toure are in the frame. Against Ajax Eboue was slow to get on the pace, but once he did he was fine. Senderos also impressed, so he could go in the middle and Toure take the right back position.

With Bergkamp and Reyes injured it’s almost certain that RvP and Henry will start up front. But will Pires and Ljungberg both start? They didn’t work that well at Bolton. Both need to step up a gear to justify both of them in the team. Otherwise 4-3-3 systems could see one of them lose a place. Well I shall sleep soundly, as team formation is Arsene’s problem to solve.

But if there is another "accident" it will demonstrate that Wenger hasn’t got his finger on why our away form in the Premiership has been so poor. More than one accident will be a trend, which would not only mean writing off the chance of winning the Premiership, but putting qualification for the CL in doubt.

For Souness another defeat will mean the sack sooner rather than later, so he will want Newcastle to get stuck in against the southern softies. There is a lot to play for, and it wont be easy, but this is one Arsenal should win.