Sol Campbell has been given some time off following his over-publicised departure from Highbury on Wednesday, and Lauren's tests have shown that his knee injury does need surgery, so he's out for the season.

Add this to the other unavailable defensive options described before and Arsene Wenger has an interesting problem at the back. It's got to be Sebastian Larsson at left back, Johan Djourou and Philippe Senderos in the middle, but who plays right back? Mathieu Flamini tried hard on Wednesday but was a worry, Wenger has suggested also that pulling Gilberto back into defence was a possibility.

Freddie Ljungberg and Robin van Persie are rested, but Cesc Fabregas and Jose Antonio Reyes return from bans. I suspect that Dennis Bergkamp will start off partnering Thierry Henry, but would expect to see at least one of the new guys Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott make it off the bench. Should be interesting.

Birmingham have David Dunn missing with a calf injury, and Damien Johnson suspended. But the likes of Pennant and Lazaridis swinging balls in for the likes of Heskey and Sutton, could cause problems for our makeshift defensive flanks. We might need those new attacking options.