Tomorrow, Arsenal venture into Belgrade for their second UEFA Champions League group stage match against Partizan, winners of last year's Serbian League. (For more about Arsenal's Group H opponents, click here). The match begins at 2:45 PM EDT; Fox Soccer Channel will show the match live.
Arsenal enter the match with a significant number of injuries still lingering. Most significantly, perhaps, Manuel Almunia picked up an elbow injury somewhere in the penalty incident on Saturday against West Brom, so he's out. Lukasz Fabianski will start.
Partizan play in one of the most heated atmospheres in world football. Arsenal, following on from the absolutely lifeless showing on Saturday, hopefully will use the atmosphere in Belgrade to lift themselves up for the game and play the way that they can.
An Arsenal win will take significant pressure off of the players both in terms of the group matches going forward as well as in terms of the match against Chelsea on Sunday.
The squad for the match features both the return of Kieran Gibbs and Wojciech Szczesny. Potential lineup for tomorrow, based on who should be fresh(-ish) and healthy:
Fabianski
Sagna Djourou Koscielny Gibbs
Song/Denilson/Wilshere
Nasri? Chamakh Arshavin
With subs: Szczesny, Clichy, Squillaci, Rosicky, Vela, Eboué, and Lansbury. Thoughts?