Mannone: Time For UCL Bow..

Eduardo is back, so is Rosicky, and so is the UCL! It’s time for the big one Gooners. Having undone Celtic in the qualifying round, the group stages are here all over again. We made it to the Semis last time around, time to do an encore, shall we? An 11Gunners look-in to the first test versus Standard Liege..

TEAM NEWS

Standard Liege

Standard Liege captain Steven Defour broke his right foot in a league game at the weekend and is likely to be out of the whole group stage.

Midfielder Wilfried Dalmat and striker Igor de Camargo are injury doubts, and Alex Witsel is short of match practice because of an eight-game domestic ban.

Arsenal

Samir Nasri (leg), Andrey Arshavin (groin), Lukasz Fabianski, Johan Djourou (both knee) and Carlos Vela (ankle) were all ruled out of the match already.

Theo Walcott, Denilson (back) and Robin van Persie (knee) are also rested for the trip to Belgium, so 18-year-old striker Sanchez Watt could be in line for his debut.

Manuel Almunia has a chest infection so there will be a Champions League debut for Vito Mannone or Wojciech Szczesny.

Probable Starting Line-Up For Arsenal (4-1-2-3)

Mannone

Sagna-Vermaelen-Gallas-Clichy

Song

Fabregas-Diaby

Bendtner-Eduardo-Rosicky

Quotable Quotes

AW

“Manuel Almunia is sick so he will not be with us,” revealed Wenger before flying out with his 18-man squad.

“From Saturday we lost Robin van Persie with a knee problem but it is a question of days for him [until he is fit]. As for Denilson, I took him off on Saturday for a back problem. It is a question of days again for him.”

Men To Watch

Eduardo and Van Persie, both have been heavily diverted with controversies taking precedence. They would like to put all the trash behind and combine together to enthrall the travelling Arsenal fans.

Also Rosicky may feature in the Champions League, after a while to be very fair. He would love being on the score sheet straight away, won’t he?

As per the new keeper, Mannone, a clean sheet would be a fair show in his European bow.

PREDICTION

Arsenal 7 – Standard Liege 0!

Can’t predict the scorers this time folks! And you are free to call me a feak for the score line btw!

Last time these two sides squared up in ’94, Arsenal ran out 7-0 winners en route to a famous Cup Winners Cup win. Time for history to play pranks on Liege perhaps! Go Gooner..