TEAM NEWS

Arsenal forward Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain is a doubt after picking up a knee injury in training.

Kieran Gibbs has returned to full training, but will be unlikely risked. Carl Jenkison, Abou Diaby, Andre Santos and Jack Wilshere remain sidelined.

Black Rovers striker David Goodwillie should recover from an illness that saw him miss the 2-0 loss to Newcastle United in mid-week, while Yakubu will serve the final game of his three-match suspension.

Captain Chris Samba will not play, but Bradley Orr could make his debut following his deadline-day move from QPR.

PREVIEW

Just as the end of 2011 was starting to paint a prettier picture for the Gunners’s Champions League hopes, the turn of the New Year has ripped their season’s canvas right apart.

Not since Arsene Wenger took over have the Gunners been this low in the table at the beginning of February. And with disgruntled fans planning to place bin bags over empty Emirates seats, the mantra of ‘In Arsene We Trust’ has been put to test even further. Arsenal have not won a Premier League game in 2012, having lost a sequence of three games on the bounce before a trip to the Reebok Stadium highlighted their inherent profligacy in front of goal.

But Wenger’s side can take some solace with Bacary Sagna’s comeback, the Frenchman having suffered a broken leg during the 2-1 loss to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur in October. And with Kieran Gibbs pencilled in for a first-team return next week, Arsenal’s full back crisis seems to have eased.

One defender that will not be playing this weekend is Blackburn Rovers captain Chris Samba. Rovers’s manager Steve Kean still believes the Congolese centre-back is not in the right frame of mind after handing in a transfer request earlier in January.

If problems could get any worse for Rovers’s manager Steve Kean this season, then he should avoid looking at the table. Rovers now sit in 18th position, two points adrift off closest rivals Bolton Wanderers. And with several fans to leaving in their droves after Wednesday’s disappointing 2-0 loss to Newcastle United at home, the pressure on Kean’s shoulders has just got that little bit heavier.

Blackburn’s manager can however take great comfort from looking at some tapes of Blackburn’s last game against the Gunners, having beaten Wenger’s side 4-3 at Ewood Park earlier in the season. But Rovers have failed to win any of their games at Arsenal since a 2-1 victory in 2002 at Highbury. Without the firepower of the suspended Yakubu to help climb them out of the Premier League’s cauldron, Kean’s men should expect a long and relentless afternoon at the Emirates Stadium.

FORM GUIDE

Arsenal: WLLLD

Blackburn Rovers: WLWDL