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The big question tonight is whether or not Thierry Henry will be fit. He was left out of Saturday's trip to Leicester because of a thigh strain - one which first appeared as far back as the early stages of the 5-1 win in Inter which he went on to dominate so much. Most of the papers seem to think that he'll be fit enough to play tonight and we can only hope that it's not just wishful thinking. Wenger has said Thierry should be ok "unless there is a reaction to the training session", and his recent assertion that he only plays players who are fully fit clearly does not apply to Thierry Henry. Lokomotiv left back Jacob Lekgetho has been saying that they'll put 2 men on him, but will it be enough?
Patrick Vieira, also rested on Saturday, should be fit too. With Parlour out still, that's very important. While a less than fully fit Henry still needs 2 markers, we've seen this season that if Paddy's not really ready it can disrupt things.
Lauren is still injured, so the only decisions that seem to have to be made are Keown or Cygan to play alongside Campbell (Keown having only just returned from injury should still be a better bet than Cygan, Pascal's done better than before in this recent spell, but still nowhere near as good as Martin), and whether Edu gets ahead of Gilberto to play alongside Vieira (unlikely, especially after Gilberto's goal and goal threats at the weekend).
Lokomotiv are pretty much injury and suspension-free and should be able to pick their first choice eleven. They are expected to start cautiously (if they've seen any of our home games this season they'll defend in numbers, frustrate our attacks and hope to catch us on the break. And Arsenal are expected to go for the jugular. Should be exciting, we could really do with an early goal or two. While our home form suggests that this game will be far from easy (nothing like the Inter match), it's worth remembering how good we've been in the cup in recent years. A winner-takes-all situation may be the best thing.
Lest ye forget: the bottom line is... if we win we top the group, if we draw we need the Kiev-Inter game to be draw too (then we'll coem second), if we lose we're out (and into the UEFA Cup).
Rupe adds...
Late, positive, news is that not only is Henry still appearing to be on track to play, but also Ray Parlour is fit again and in the squad. |
