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Justin Hoyte joins Emmanuel Eboue on the injury list,
and has not travelled to Holland for the match against PSV Eindhoven tomorrow night.
Hoyte has a hamstring problem, but it's thought to be pretty minor and
his chances of making the League Cup final on Sunday are good.
Johan Djourou is back though, after a minor knee complaint ruled him
out of the awful draw
with Blackburn on Saturday. Djourou is the obvious choice to fill
in at right back, with two of Kolo Toure, Philippe Senderos, and
William Gallas in the middle of defence. I suspect that it'll be Gallas,
so long as there was no reaction to his game on Saturday.
Wenger has said,
however, that Gallas is an option at right back. Gael Clichy will
complete the defence, along with Jens Lehmann.
Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby, and Armand Traore have all been
left at home with Sunday's game in mind, but Denilson has
travelled with the squad and may be on the bench as an attacking
midfield option.
In a game like this one expects Wener to start with the best, so
Gilberto, Cesc_Fabgregas, Alexander Hleb (back after a cold
kept him out of Saturday's game), and Tomas Rosicky
are expected to start in midfield. The question then is whether or
not to play 4-5-1, with Thierry Henry up front and one of
Mathieu Flamini, Julio Baptista or Freddie Ljungberg (or even
Jeremie Aliadiere or Denilson) bolstering the midfield, or
to play Emmanuel Adebayor up front with the skipper.
Probably the first option, it worked alright in European
away matches last year.
Arsenal have faced PSV four times in the last 5 years (see
Arsenal vs PSV page
for scores and links to reports) and we've won 2 and drawn 2 (and one
of each of those results at their place). The first of these 4,
a 4-0 away win in
2002, featured a goal from Gilberto after just 20.12 seconds,
which remains a Champs League
record.
PSV have just one goal from those 4 games, in the fourth match
a 1-1 draw
also in Holland, when both Lauren and Patrick Vieira were sent off.
The Dutch club are top of the Dutch league after a slow start,
and strong favourites to retain their title.
They have Ronald Koeman in charge now, who knows what it takes to
win European finals having done so with both PSV and Barcelona. Last
year he knocked out Liverpool and Manchester United,
and gavce Barcelona tough ride in the quarter-final. But that was
with Benfica.
Up front Jefferson Farfan and Kolo and Eboue's Ivory Coast team mate
Arouna Kone are scoring regularly,
but Farfan (their top scorer this season with 16) is a doubt after being taken to hospital
today for tests on an ankle problem. If he can't make it then Brazilian
Diego Tardelli may start.
They also have striker Patrick Kluivert
(back), midfielder Ibrahim Afellay (ankle), winger Michael Reiziger
(stomach) and midfielder John de Jong (knee) all out injured, while Alcides, who Koeman
brought from Benfica, is ineligible
due to his playing for the Portuguese club at an earlier stage.
Portuguese defender Manuel de Costa is expected to return to the side having been
rested from their weekend win over Heracles Almelo, and Chinese
left back Xiang could get a Champs League debut.
Dutch veteran Philip Cocu is still there as the club captain,
and Liverpool reject Jan Kronkamp returns in defence.
That Heracles win was their first in 4, but they've lost only
twice at home in the last year. Both were in the Champs League,
to Liverpool and Bordeaux.
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