Duo out for Gunners

Posted Saturday, October 17, 2009 by PA

Arsenal will be without left-back Gael Clichy (ankle) and striker Nicklas Bendtner (groin) for their Barclays Premier League clash with Birmingham, but goalkeeper Manuel Almunia should return from a virus.

Midfielder Abou Diaby (ankle) also picked up a problem while away with France, but is expected to be available along with captain Cesc Fabregas who missed Spain's midweek game for personal reasons.

Mexico striker Carlos Vela is on his way back from Central America and so will not be included.

Reserve keeper Lukasz Fabianski is close to a return following knee surgery, but winger Samir Nasri (broken leg), Croatia striker Eduardo (thigh) and Denilson (back) remain sidelined.

The build-up to the game has seen new Birmingham owner Carson Yeung outline his plans to make the club a dominant force in the English game.

Alex McLeish has already been promised a transfer kitty of up to #40 million to spend in the January transfer window and Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is pleased for his counterpart, even if he does not subscribe to Yeung's theory.

"It is good for them to know they have some funds available and it gets more and more investors in the league," said Wenger.

"But at the end of the day there will be one team finishing first and one team finishing last, no matter how much money you put in, because the number of top, top class players available is limited."

Birmingham striker Cameron Jerome is available after a two-month absence.

The England Under-21 international has been sidelined since suffering an ankle injury against Portsmouth at St Andrew's in the second match of the campaign.

Fellow forward Christian Benitez should also be available after missing the 2-1 defeat at Burnley when he was allowed to return to Ecuador after his father was involved in a car accident.

But McLeish has a series of injury worries and fitness doubts including Gregory Vignal, Franck Queudrue, Martin Taylor, Danny Murphy, Teemu Tainio, Giovanny Espinoza, Stuart Parnaby and Keith Fahey.

City will face the Gunners for the first time since the horrific injury suffered by Eduardo following a tackle by Martin Taylor at St Andrew's 20 months ago.

Wenger claimed after the game that Taylor, himself currently sidelined with a long-term injury, should never play again.

Wenger later qualified those comments and McLeish is adamant there will be no carry over from that encounter when the sides meet at the Emirates Stadium.

He said: "I've seen Arsene many times since and it has not been mentioned. Life goes on. I don't think we want to go over the history of the Eduardo incident.

"There are many controversial things that have happened in football since and we move forward.

"Martin will not have a chance to shake hands with Eduardo because he is injured. He has suffered from a bad injury over the last 10-12 weeks and we won't see him for a while yet."