David Bentley has been called up to the England U21 squad to face Macedonia & Portugal by David Platt, following a spate of injuries. Olaf-Ingur Skulason, who recently returned from a loan spell in Iceland, has been called up to the Iceland U21 squad agaunst Germany. Jeremie Aliadiere is in the France U21 list, Graham Stack in the Ireland U21s to play Russia, and Philippe Senderos has recovered from injury and goes to Russia also with the Switzerland U21s. Young striker Quincy Owusu-Abeyie (joint top scorer for the Arsenal U17s last season) has been called up by Holland U19s who play Holland.

Jens Lehmann is in the Germany squad, but unlikely to play. Both the player and his club manager have been speaking this week of frustration at being second choice behind Kahn. He's been unfortunate in that he's only a year younger than the Bayern Munich keeper. But Wenger reckons Lehmann could overtake Kahn. "It is the opinion of many people that he is the best in Germany. Before the World Cup, it was Kahn but since then it has been 50:50."

Gilberto has made the long trip home as Brazil prepare to play Colombia and Ecuador, and Kolo Toure is with the Ivory Coast for their match against Tunisia. The good news for Arsenal, in fact it's easily the most important fact on this page, is that they're out of the African Nations Cup so we won't have to lose Kolo for a long spell next spring.

Cole and Campbell are in the England squad and likely starters for both matches (Macedonia & Liechtenstein: 2 wins means England only need a draw away to Turkey), although Wayne Bridge's move to Chelsea could help his claim to the left-back position. With Ferdinand injured, John Terry will probably partner Sol.

Henry, Vieira, Pires and Wiltord are of course all called up by France for the matches against Cyprus & Slovenia. France have won 5 out of 5 so far and could qualify with 2 games to spare.

Ljungberg missed Sweden's last match through injury, but returns to face San Marino and Poland.

Some of our loaned-out players will no doubt feature too: Pennant, Volz, Stepanovs, maybe Tavlaridis and Gio... but to be honest we don't expect to see them play for Arsenal again. Good luck to all of them anyway!