Team-wise, there seems to be an expectation that Sol Campbell will return to the defence, following his successful return to action in the reserves' win on Monday. But as yet there's no official confirmation, and Wenger has said that he won't rush Sol back, so it is possible that he'll wait. It's possible that he won't want Sol to have to play 3 times in a week, and we have a European match on Wednesday.

Apart from that, Gilberto is the only significant doubt, with a minor back complaint. With Edu and Cesc both champing at the bit, that shouldn't be too hard a position to fill. Having seen Cesc do so well alongside Gilberto, it'd be very interesting to see him playing with Paddy.

Wenger has admiited that he's keeping an eye on Shaun Wright-Phillips, so it's going to be interesting to see how Wrighty's boy fares against Ashley Cole and the rest of our awesome strength down the left flank. SWP has been saying that Arsenal hold no fear, following back-to-back wins and a league cup goal-fest.

Nicolas Anelka was rested for that match along with David James and Richard Dunne. All 3 are likely to return, but Steve McManaman (achilles) and Trevor Sinclair (knee) are out.

It's possible that we'll go into the match in second place in the Premiership, since Chelsea are playing early, at Middlesbrough. Arsenal are the only team ever to win the league having been top for the whole of the season (1947/48). While it's clearly too early to start thinking about that for this season, it's worth noting that the fact that matches happen at all sorts of different times these days makes it a much harder feat.

Rupe adds...
According to the Mail, Gilberto has been ruled out because of the back problem mentioned above, and so has Robert Pires. Bobby is being rested because of a foot injury but is expected to be ok for Rosenborg on Wednesday. Gilberto is more likely to miss it.

City have also lost a midfielder from their squad for the game. US international Claudio Reyna has picked up an injury that could see him sidelined for a month. Paul Bosvelt is expected to partner Joey Barton in central midfield (as he did for the Barnsley game).

Darren Kilfara has written to say that strictly speaking we have not been top of the table since the start of the season, because the opening match of the season between Liverpool and Tottenham kicked off early. There are a few ways one could take this. Perhaps one should only look at the table at the end of each day? Or perhaps one should say that it's only really started when everyone has played a game (otherwise, in a sense, we'd be the only team capable of it since we start off top alphabetically). It's not important, but it does emphasize the point that the varying kick-off times & days make it a more difficult and complicated record to adjudicate.