The Arsenal captain has a thigh injury picked up during Euro 2004, and it is expected to keep him out for about another fortnight. French team-mates Henry and Pires are both in the squad along with Freddie Ljungberg, but there are fitness doubts over all 3 (achilles, calf, and ribs respectively).

Sol Campbell is also definitely missing with the achilles problem which the England set-up missed, and Jeremie Aliadiere is out for months.

Dennis Bergkamp will probably captain the side in Vieira's absence, although if Henry Reyes and Pires all play, Dennis's place in the starting line-up would be far from guaranteed. Edu is having a rest after his Brazilian duties, so there's a chance that Cesc Fabregas will follow up his excellent Community Shield showing with a Premiership start. Svard and Flamini are also possibilities, but the fact that Fabregas played last week, and knows his team-mates better than Flamini, is likely to make him favourite. Flamini has now received clearance to play, and is in the squad. Svard has been reported as saying that he wants to leave Arsenal to get regular first team action (but we're not particularly trusting of press reports this week).

At the back, Cygan will probably partner Kolo Toure. We'll give him a chance, there were definite signs of improvement last season (when not being used as a left winger!). But if Pascal doesn't impress and if Campbell isn't back soon, we expect to see Senderos given a chance before long.

The good news from Goodison is that Wayne Rooney is injured and definitely misses the game. The broken bone in his foot, sustained in Portugal, will keep him away from training for another 2 weeks or so. China star Li Tie is also recovering from a fracture.

Socts youngster James McFadden will probably stand in for Rooney, playing alongside former Gunner Kevin Campbell. There is a slight fitness doubt about McFadden, and another option is new signing Marcus Bent. Tim Cahill is at the Olympics with Australia, and in defence Yobo is an injury doubt.

In case anyone's forgotten, Arsenal are on an unbeaten league run of 40 games, which is 2 short of Nottm Forest's top-flight record. See Record-breakers page.