With Bergkamp back and pulling the strings, and Henry Pires and Reyes all playing with a bit more va va voom on Tuesday than of late, perhaps he wouldn't be missed as much as we'd have thought before Tuesday.

However much we were impressed with the performances of Cesc and particularly Flamini that night, Vieira's absence has to be seen as a negative. He's suspended for one match having picked up a booking against Liverpool 2 weeks ago. Tomorrow will be the real big test for the Arsenal midfield of the future. Many Arsenal fans seem to think that Dennis is a more effective captain on the pitch than Paddy, and his presence on the pitch should help the midfield again.

Lauren will surely return, having missed Tuesday only through a European ban, and that has to be a good thing. Hoyte did well on Tuesday but I thought we were even more lopsided than usual, with the strength of the left hand side.

The big question is, once again, who's to be in goal. A lot of pundits seem to think that Lehmann will be recalled following slips by Almunia in the last 3 games, despite the great results in the ones that mattered. Wenger did seem to be suggesting before Tuesday that Almunia would be getting more than just the 2 games. But that was before Tuesday when he did flap a bit at a few crosses, including the one that led to the goal, and Le Boss has also been praising Lehmann for his reaction to being dropped, "He fights for his position very hard. He wants to practise even harder and he has taken it in a very positive way".

Arsenal are still without Edu, Gilberto, Cygan through injury, but a knee problem for Ashley Cole, mentioned earlier in the week, appears to have cleared up.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has been saying that his team will not be coming to Highbury with a defensive mentality. "We will travel by bus but I promise we will not park it in front of the goal", he says. But we suspect that he'd be happy with a point.

Chelsea lost their meaningless game in Porto on Tuesday, but will probably have had an eye on this fixture. Makelele and Robben and perhaps Gudjohnsen are likely to be recalled. Robert Huth is out with an ankle problem but, as far as I can tell, that's it as far as absences are concerned.

Of course, it's still early doors. "Must win" is probably a bit strong. But it would be foolish to bank on Chelsea having a major sticky patch this season. Their squad is immense and Mourinho seems to have made a significant difference in terms of turning them into a team rather than a collection of names. A loss in this match, and the 8 point gap that would result, would make things very hard.