Freddie Ljungberg is missing, though. He picked up a minor hamstring tweak on Saturday but is expected back very soon, perhaps even for the visit of Sunderland at the weekend.

Apart from Freddie, the only absentees are Ashley Cole and Alexander Hleb, with their knee and foot injuries. Neither is expected back before late November.

Sparta are in deep doo-doo in the Champs League, with just one point from their first 3 games (see table) and having failed to win any of their last 9 games in Europe (11 if just counting Champs League games). Their current domestic form isn't helping either: they're still 10th in the Czech league, the appointment of Stanislas Griga as manager just before our last encounter not having had the hope-for impact as yet. Sparta will be missing Karol Kisel, who had to leave the pitch during the loss to Arsenal with a suspected broken collar bone. If being realistic, Sparta are probably hoping at most for 3rd place, but even for a decent chance of that they need to win tonight. For Arsenal, a point will be virtually enough to ensure progress to the knockout stage, and a win virtually guarantees top spot. Let's hope that it's straightforward, and that the more interesting match tonight turns out to be the Thun vs Ajax one.

The fact that we're almost through does raise the possibility of Arsene Wenger giving some fringe players a bit of experience, but I suspect it's a bit early for a lot of that. I see on some Arsenal sites, blogs and forums and so on, people are saying "give the kids a go". But we are not through, and even a point doesn't definitely guarantee anything except third place. Given the great start we've made, what Wenger won't want to do is create a situation where Arsenal are put under pressure for the last games, both of which are likely to be against teams knowing that a win will give them a good chance. Better to make sure, to wrap it up tonight with a win, and then give the kids a go in the subsequent matches when the pressure is off.

What will be interesting though, is whether or not Robin van Persie has done enough recently to earn a start. I suspect not. It sometimes feels like the fact that Dennis Bergkamp can't get to the away games in Europe means that he has a guaranteed spot in the home games. But at the moment, van Persie looks very much like the biggest goal threat amongst our human strikers (ie apart from Henry). If he doesn't start tonight, it'd be disappointing if he didn't then get get a start on Saturday. Perhaps starting Dennis and/or Reyes ahead of Robin, at the moment, does constitute easing off.

Sparta played their home match with a reduced capacity as a punishment for racist chanting during the match against Ajax. This time they'll have no fans but it's their own choice. They turned down their allocation. There are more interesting match facts on the official site, perhaps the most significant of which for us is that Kolo Toure is one booking away from a ban.