Alex McLeish believes Birmingham will have to play to their “absolute maximum” to have a chance of causing another upset against Arsenal in Saturday’s Barclays Premier League clash at St Andrews.

The Blues put a dent into the Gunners formidable home record when a goal from Garry O’Connor earned them a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium last month.

Now they will be fresh after a fortnight’s break to try and exploit Arsene Wenger’s side, who were hammered 4-0 in the FA Cup by Manchester United last weekend before being held to a goalless draw by AC Milan in the Champions League.

But Birmingham boss McLeish knows his fourth-bottom side will still have to fire on all cylinders to exploit any tired limbs among Arsenal’s players.

The former Scotland boss, who is set to persevere with the Mikael Forssell-James McFadden partnership up front, said: “It is a case of us trying to carry on where we left off against West Ham (in a 1-1 draw) when we produced a decent performance.

“Arsenal have had two games in the past week - and I just wish they had another before we played them! - but we can’t afford to have anyone off the boil in this game.

“There will be a big turn-out and the St. Andrews crowd will give the players that extra edge but we know we have to play to our absolute maximum against a team of Arsenal’s quality.

“They have looked unbeatable at times with some of the football they have played this season but we know that on a given day we can get the three points.”

McLeish wants his players to try and give Arsenal more to think about defensively than when they shared the spoils last month.

He said: “If there is anything in Arsenal’s defence that is weak, then we have got to exploit it.

“We played well at the Emirates after a pretty torrid opening 15 minutes in which we went a goal down, fought back and stood firm.

“I’d like to think that at St. Andrews we can show a wee bit more going the other way and we will look to put responsibility on people like James McFadden and Mikael Forssell.

“They played well at West Ham and I don’t see any reasn why they can’t do the same in this one. Mikael is a proven Premier League goalscorer.”

Joint top scorer Olivier Kapo will be back in contention after completing a one-game ban against the Hammers for incurring five bookings this season.