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Man City visit Highbury tomorrow with a couple of defenders missing. Richard Dunne has a knee injury picked up during the international break and Ben Thatcher has an ankle problem. Bardlet Wright-Phillips and and Robbie Fowler both returned from injury (knee and back respectively) for the reserves in midweek but are thought unlikely starters against Arsenal. That completes City's list of absentees. They're still dangerous up front, the form of Cole and Vassell had made me almost forget that they even had Robbie Fowler (Pearce is on record as saying that it's down to Fowler to win his place back), and were well-deserving of their recent win over West Ham when Cole's opener was particularly good. Stuart Pearce is expected to name the same side, including 18 year old Nedum Onuoha in defence.
For Arsenal, Jose Antonio Reyes is out with the bruised rib picked up against Sparta Prague on Tuesday.
Ashley Cole, Freddie Ljungberg, and Alex Hleb are long-term injuries. Sol Campbell is nearly fit but, especially with Kolo Toure, Philippe Senderos, and even Pascal Cygan playing well at the moment Sol won't be rushed back. Maybe
next week's League Cup tie at Sunderland will be used to try him out. The main thing though is that Thierry Henry has shown no ill-effects of his brilliant return on Tuesday, and should be ready to lead the side out. We've heard that the club are planning on presenting him with a memento of his record goal-scoring feat before the game, and that they were hoping to get Ian Wright to do the honours (anyone remember if he got presented with anything when he did it?)
Rupe adds...
In response to the question immediately above, Lucas Manley writes...
"When WWW got the record the Arse got a load of kids in the football strips of all the clubs he scored
against and lined them up in the centre circle before he was presented with his commemorative plaque
by PHW."
"TH14's line up will be very different from WWW's as TH14 has only scored 1 Coca Cola Cup goal as
apposed to the 30-odd that WWW bagged against the likes of Hartlepool and Huddersfield Town"
Anyone getting to the game early will not only be able to see Henry pick up his plaque (or whatever) but can also join in singing happy birthday to Arsene Wenger and pick up a special flag which the club has had made to celebrate his time as manager.
The club say that there will be an appearance from "a very special guest", which I suspect may relate more to Henry than Wenger (see above). | 
