Champions League - Team news: Toure out

Eurosport - Tue, 21 Oct 19:17:00 2008

Arsenal face a defensive injury crisis with Kolo Toure, William Gallas and Bacary Sagna all out of the Champions League game at Fenerbahce.

2008-2009 Arsenal Kolo Toure - 0

Toure damaged shoulder ligaments during Saturday's Premier League win against Everton and will not make the trip to Turkey.

Manager Arsene Wenger said Gallas and Sagna are still out, but confirmed that Nicklas Bendtner and Johan Djourou are both back in contention.

All three defenders could return in time for the weekend trip across London to play West Ham.

"From Saturday, we have Nicklas Bendtner back in the squad and Johan Djourou is available again," said Wenger.

"But we don't have Kolo Toure. Gallas and Sagna are out but they are not long-term and could be back in the squad for Sunday."

Djourou is expected to partner Mikael Silvestre in the centre of defence, although Alex Song looked accomplished filling in following Toure's injury on Saturday.

Either Song or Emmanuel Eboue will play right-back in Sagna's absence, while Danish striker Bendtner will bolster Wenger's attacking options on the bench.

Arsenal have four points from their first two Group G games, and a win in Istanbul would give them an excellent chance of progressing to the knockout stages.

Fenerbahce coach Luis Aragones gave little away at the pre-match press conference, refusing to answer certain questions as he faces a trial by media in Turkey.

The Istanbul strugglers lie mid-table after a poor start to life under the Spaniard, but they won 3-2 at bottom club Kocaelispor at the weekend.

Aragones said he would continue with Dani Guiza up front, supported by Semih Senturk in a withdrawn position.

Gokhan Gonul is a major doubt through injury.

Porto host Dynamo Kiev at the Estadio Dragao in the other Group G match.

After missing the 4-0 Portuguese Cup win over lower-league side Sertanense, Bruno Alves, Freddy Guarin, Lucho Gonzalez, Raul Meireles, Cristian Rodriguez and Cristian Sapunaru are back in the Porto squad.

For Kiev, Stanislav Bogush is expected to continue in goal with Oleksandr Shovkovskiy on the bench, with boss Yurij Semin pretty much at full-strength and with no notable absenses from a 22-man squad that contains the full starting line-up that held Arsenal on matchday one.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

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  1. Fenerbahce are one of the biggest clubs in­ europe,certainly in turkey but are always pipped to the­ post by a much smaller Galatasaray who are a better­ organised better run outfit ,the management there are­ more competent.
    Management at fenerbahce are­ ineficient,undemocratic. Aziz Yildirim for the near­ past decade has managed Fenerbahce like a­ mafiosa,anyone who disagrees with him are thrown out or­ beaten up.He has shown the door to our best­ players,tuncay,aurelio, appiah.But his days are fast­ unravelling before him,his lack of knowledge of­ football is now clear for the fans to see.Its time for­ him to go,a drubbing by Arsenal tonight will hasten his­ departure.

    Fenerbahce 0 Arsenal 3

    From YILMAZ, on Tue 21 Oct 7:18PM

  2. In all honesty as a Fenerbahce fan from Azserbaijan I­ think that it'll be a very close call for both­ teams. I think at least 4 goals will be scored. I hope­ Fener beats by 3:2. Yea both teams are missing some of­ their key players. I think both teams are equally­ strong. In fairness Arsenal and Fener should be topping­ this group. Dynamo and Porto are weaker teams at the­ moment. The score could be 2:2 or 3:2 for Fener. I­ think it could be a repeat of Fenerbahce Sevilla­ encounter in Istanbul last year. Greetings to Arsenal­ fans.

    From azerican, on Tue 21 Oct 4:22PM

  3. ALL ENGLISH FOOTBALL
    PREMIER LEAGUE – FA CUP – CARLING­ CUP
    CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – UEFA CUP
    ALL MATCHES ON WEB: ­ PREMIER LEAGUE, LIGA, SERIE A, BUNDESLIGA AND CHAMPIONS­ LEAGUE - UEFA CUP
    ALL THE HIGHLIGHTS OF PREMIER­ LEAGUE MATCHES

    From go to www.premiership.altervista.org, on Tue 21 Oct 2:38PM

  4. turkiyeyi hafife almayin turkiye sizi yakar adam gibi­ oturun arsenela cakar turkiye turkiye turkiye turkiye­ turkiye
    sizin dilinizde TURKEY cimbomda gelio­ oliympiakosa 5 atar TURKEYYY

    From harry_kewell_ultraslan, on Tue 21 Oct 12:55PM

  5. people always complain arsenal team lack of experience.­ who fault? i would say wenger because he he ony want to­ earn money for the club. he only bought young player­ and resell them with higher price. the money they­ earned will never use to buy good, experience player.­ he let gilberto, pires, henry, vieira,...go(after­ 30years old-only one year extention of the contract).­ just look at manu, how their "old player"­ play an important role.

    From cs t, on Tue 21 Oct 11:59AM

  6. everybody says thin squad thin squad and the match­ hasnt even been plyed yet so lets wait and see if all­ these so called experts that keep writing all this @#$%­ have been proven wrong so many times by Wenger if your­ better at it apply for the job next time the vacancy­ is advertised otherwise shut the F%$# up and enjoy the­ quality football that Arsenal play from a long time fan­ who can remember the double from the 70's which­ half of you probably cant

    From tippersbob, on Tue 21 Oct 11:47AM

  7. i lawal shamsideen alade will like to used the­ oppountunity to say i love guners 4 life but the­ problem we gunners is haveing is our coach because is­ not willing to buy already well skillful player that­ can play very well, that have enough experience,and­ that as face alot football tornament in is life time.­ pls wenger find something to do to these so we gunners­ can be happy. spend these money for as to acheive,we­ gunner thanks.

    From lawalshamsideen, on Tue 21 Oct 11:25AM

  8. Go gunners! In Wenger we trust!!

    From Isaac, on Tue 21 Oct 9:54AM

  9. JUST GO FOR ZAKI AND SANTA CRUZ COME­ JANUARY...!!!CHELSEA WILL SOON CRUMBLE.!!!!!

    From Olugbayi, on Mon 20 Oct 7:01PM
  10. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Now look at how our guys get bullied by small teams-the­ class of chelsea is showing us how such small teams­ should be taught. I hope wenger will learn_Prince­ Beemer

    From eric, on Mon 20 Oct 6:22PM

  11. Wenger has let us down by behaving like a business man.­ An injury to one player disorganises the entire team­ set up because we dont have the 2nd best,we only have­ 3rd best persons

    From eric, on Mon 20 Oct 6:20PM

  12. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I MEAN­ YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESS WE ARE GOING TO WIN NO­ MATTER WHAAAAAAAAT.

    From Wilson-M, on Mon 20 Oct 5:52PM

  13. thats not good

    From First Namekarl, on Mon 20 Oct 5:20PM

  14. doubt it!

    From doubt.it.man, on Mon 20 Oct 4:51PM

  15. Arsenal squad is thin, Wenger needs to buy, Cess maybe­ off to sunny Spain...........

    yeap it is all panic at­ the Arsenal ! NOT...........its Still possible Spurs­ can finish fourth this season, and that my lovlies­ keeps all us Gooners happy.

    At the start of every­ season "Spurs acn finish Fourth" year they­ will be well happy finishing 4th from bottom this­ campaign.

    From Gilbertson, on Mon 20 Oct 4:22PM

  16. I DON'T AGREE THIS THEORY THAT ARSENAL NEED TO GO­ OUT AND "SPEND SOME MONEY" LIKE CHELSEA TO­ WIN A TITLE,HOWEVER I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A COUPLE OF­ PLAYERS JOIN ARSENAL IN JANUARY OR NEXT SUMMER­ PLAYER'S LIKE YOHANN GORCUFF AND ANATOLY TYMOSCHUK­ OF ZENT ST PETERSBURG AND UKRAINE AND A RELIABLE­ GOALKEEPER UNTIL FABIANSKI IS READY TO TAKE OVER­ POSSIBLY ONE MORE CENTER-BACK SO WE CAN GET RID OF­ GALLAS.COME ON ARSENAL.FROM SIMON-GUNNER4LIFE

    From simonramond, on Mon 20 Oct 4:07PM
  17. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    useless no good french team

    From terry, on Mon 20 Oct 3:48PM

  18. In fairness, the only reason people are saying the­ squad is thin is because you don't know enough­ about the players who are filling in. You probably­ said you needed another keeper before Almunia replaced­ Lehmann or Clichy replaced Cole or Sagna replaced Eboue­ at Full Back (the list goes on). Just because Chelsea­ bought a bench full of scabs, everyone gets on­ Arsenal's case for not buying. Vela is going to be­ unbelievable too, if not already.
    Djourou's­ competent, Song is really good, once given the chance­ (as when at Charlton).
    One Song, We've only got one­ Song, We've only got one Song, We've only got­ one Song.....
    Not an Arsenal fan by the way.

    From Vinnie Queenan, on Mon 20 Oct 3:03PM

  19. Exchange photo album and spend the lonely nights­ ______Wealthy Finder C om_______ for people tired of­ lonely life

    From sexymodel2008d, on Mon 20 Oct 2:20PM

  20. THE IDEA OF MAKING ARSENAL " A LESS THAN 1 POUND­ SHOP" IS UNACCEPTABLE.
    WE AS FANS PAY NOT THE KIND­ OF TESCO "BUY ONE GET ONE FREE" JESSY AND­ STUFF.
    WENGER! DONT BE FAIRLY USED­ COACH..........AGREED MORE MONEY MORE PROBLEMS!
    IT IS­ NOT THE SAME IN SOCCER OR FOOTBALL.
    Bashir Abba­ Waziri,NIGERIA

    From bashir, on Mon 20 Oct 1:50PM
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