TEAM NEWS

Mikel Arteta should return for the Gunners after suffering concussion during the 2-1 victory over Liverpool last Saturday.

Aaron Ramsey has shaken off an ankle injury that has kept him out for several weeks, whilst Yossi Benayoun returned to first-team training on Friday after overcoming illness.

Andre Santos has recovered from ankle ligament damage, but is expected to miss out after resuming training for the first time in three months.

Newcastle's Peter Lovenkrands could miss the rest of the season after suffering a suspected ruptured thigh muscle against Sunderland.

But manager Alan Pardew has no other fresh injury concerns ahead of Monday's match.

MATCH PREVIEW

The doom and gloom that surrounded the Emirates hallways a few weeks ago has been miraculously lifted after an up-turn in fortunes for Arsene Wenger’s side.

With the 4-0 annihilation to AC Milan in the Champions League, followed by the lacklustre 2-0 loss to Sunderland in the FA Cup only days later, the Gunners’s season looked to have been on the cusp of a serious, unrecoverable meltdown.

But following Arsenal’s sensational comeback against Tottenham, Liverpool and AC Milan in recent weeks, the Gunners have well and truly transformed themselves into this season’s comeback kings.

It is a far cry from a situation where it looked like the final curtain was closing on Arsene Wenger’s sixteen year reign, with the Frenchman’s side now sitting in fourth place, four points adrift of their North London rivals with a game to spare.

And with the summer arrival of German international Lukas Podolski seemingly pencilled into the club’s books, the Emirates cheers have never rung as loudly during a rather indifferent campaign for the Gunners.

Arsenal will be looking for a fifth consecutive Premier League victory to help tighten their grip on fourth spot. But Wenger’s side will have to be wary of complacency against an impressive Newcastle United outfit, crushing all of this season’s expectations along the way as they sit firmly in the dog-fight for a Champions League berth of their own.

And The Toon faithful can look no further than thanking their new goal-scoring hero Demba Ba, the Senegalese striker firing sixteen goals in the league already for the campaign.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew can take even greater comfort from The Magpies’s last trip to the Emirates Stadium, winning 1-0 courtesy of a headed goal from Liverpool striker Andy Carroll.

LEAGUE FORM

Arsenal: DWWWW
Newcastle: WWLDD