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Saturday's captain (and rival to Thierry Henry for player of the match), Dennis Bergkamp is not playing against Inter. As usual, for the big games, he said he's willing to travel overland, and as usual Arsene Wenger said "no".
With Wiltord still injured that leaves Kanu or Aliadiere to partner Henry up front. Kanu's experience is likely to be the telling factor there.
In defence Keown was said to be back in contention, but the latest is that Wenger says he's been out too long to start a game like this. Lauren, though not suspended for this game, is injured. So it looks like Saturday's defensive line-up will turn out to be have been a rehearsal for the San Siro after all.
Parlour should be available again, so we've got 4 from Ray, Bob, Freddie, Edu, and Gilberto in midfield. Wenger says that the last of these is a doubt. He has returned from South Amwerica with a muscle problem of some sort and Wenger is "not sure he will start the game".
Inter need a win to guarantee qualification. They won 6-0 against Reggina at the weekend and the new coach Alberto Zacheroni is said to be more attack minded than Hector Cuper, who masterminded the 3-0 win at Highbury. As far as I can tell, their only notable absentee for the match is the little Turk Emre. Vieri is available to face Arsenal this time. One story you may have missed this week: Vieri says he dreams of being a professional cricketer.
Let's face it, a point would be a great result. But it wouldn't be enough. There are reports of serious rainfall in Italy but even if the game is postponed it's unlikely to be by long enough to help us strenghten the line-up. We need a classic Arsenal against-the-odds performance.
Rupe adds...
Looks like Alvaro Recoba is missing for Inter as well.
The permutations are quite complicated still. What we don't want in the other game, which kicks off at 5pm our time, is a Dynamo win. If they win and we don't, we're out. If they don't win, then we'll still have a chance going into the last game even if we only get a point tonight.
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