Walcott key as Leicester pose the ultimate test for Arsenal

Arsenal's Premier League showdown with Leicester City on Saturday could be prove to be critical to the title race. But with the Foxes riding high, it is the five-points-behind Gunners that have most to lose.

Leicester are on a roll after brushing aside Liverpool and Manchester City, the two teams expected to derail their title push, and are now favourites to win the title.

The Emirates Stadium is the next stop. If Claudio Ranieri's team of freewheelers win and Tottenham Hotspur draw with Man City, their lead will be seven points.

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"It wasn't meant to be this way – those fixtures were meant to be difficult and this was supposed to be Arsenal's year," says JJ Bull of the Daily Telegraph. "Yet here we are, waiting at the Emirates station for the Leicester train to crash to a halt, or probably just speed on to its next destination. If it does the latter, you'd better mind the gap."

Leicester's two wins have not only established them as title favourites, they have also shifted the focus and the pressure onto Arsenal. It is a game that could all but end the Gunners' title challenge for yet another year and it could be unfashionable Leicester that finally pull the rug from under Arsene Wenger's feet.

This game is fast becoming a symbolic test of the veteran's managerial acumen - and it will unfold in the ever-more unforgiving and pressurised environment of the Emirates.

So far, Leicester's more illustrious rivals have simply assumed they could play their own way against the Foxes and win. Even the pundits have fallen into the trap. Before last Saturday's game against Man City, most experts agreed Leicester's counter-attacking style was perfectly suited for the challenge they faced at the Etihad before confidently predicting a home win.

Leicester then went out, hit City on the break - as everyone knew they would - and won 3-1.

The Foxes play like a recoiled spring, says Bull. They are the "best counter-attacking team in the Premier League by a million miles" and no-one seems able to stop them.

That means it is Arsenal who must adapt their game, with Aaron Ramsey sitting alongside Francis Coquelin in midfield.

"Ramsey must manage this game from the centre of the pitch and rely on Mesut Ozil to find space in behind Christian Fuchs and Danny Simpson for Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott to use," explains Bull.

What's more, Arsenal cannot afford to lose possession.

The game will be all about pace, says ESPN, and that means Walcott (pictured above) must play for Arsenal and defender Gabriel should remain in the side. It means dropping Olivier Giroud and Per Mertesacker to the bench, but "quick feet may be more important for Arsenal than nous".

Arsenal need to adopt the tactics they employed against Man City last year, when they won 2-0 at the Etihad. Wenger's decision to play reactively was a "minor miracle", says Sam Tighe of Bleacher Report, but it paid dividends and established Coquelin as the Gunners' lynchpin.

Adopting a similarly defensive approach at home against a team such as Leicester would surely bring Wenger out in a cold sweat. A "compromise in principles - something Wenger rarely stomachs - but this might be a situation in which it is truly a necessity to do so".

The stakes are high, says Jonathan Wilson of The Guardian. "As Arsenal have stuttered recently, it feels as though the past decade of Wenger's management has been called into question."

He is drifting towards self-parody as another season slips away. "Rather than asking how best to solve a problem, Wenger begins to ask how Arsene Wenger would solve the problem," writes Wilson.

"He has solved countless problems in the past, so he turns to past experience; there is a danger, though, that what was successful in the past will no longer be successful."