THIERRY HENRY has a slight groin strain and misses tomorrow’s Premiership match at Middlesbrough.
He should be OK for the Champions League next Wednesday.
Sol Campbell is not ready yet.
And Freddie Ljungberg will be rested.
ARSENE says he would have liked to rest Hleb as well, but with Henry and Ljungberg out, that may be impossible.
First-goal Freddie has always been a reliable gladiator for the manager in European games, as Lazio and Juventus will testify.
All across Europe the big clubs are preparing for a league game, closely followed by a Champions League game.
Everybody wants to start well in the Champions League, and everybody needs to win their home games, whether it’s Arsenal against Thun or Lyon v Real Madrid or Werder Bremen v Barcelona or Villareal & Diego Forlan v Man United
THE ENGLISH TV MARKET is the richest, so Premiership clubs earn big money if they do well, or even if they don’t, like Arsenal, as this table shows.
Arsenal’s other group opponents, Ajax and Sparta Prague, only earned £5 million and £2 million last season.
Uefa’s prestige competition helps the rich clubs to maintain a monopoly of the best players
Distribution of £££££££££ in 2004/05 season:
CLUB Earnings Final position
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Liverpool England 21.5m winners
Chelsea England 19.8 semi
AC Milan Italy 17.5 final
Arsenal England 16.7 last 16
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Lyon France 13.6 quarter
Bayern Munich Germany 12.3 quarter
Werder Bremen Germany 11.4 last 16
Man United England 11.6 last 16
Barcelona Spain 10.7 last 16
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PSV Eindhoven Holland 10.5 semi
Juventus Italy 10.1 quarter
Inter Milan Italy 10 quarter
Valencia Spain 9.7 group
Monaco France 9.2 last 16
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Real Madrid Spain 9.2 last 16
Leverkusen Germany 9 last 16
Paris St-G France 8.3 group
Roma Italy 7.1 group
Celtic Scot 7 group
Deportivo Spain 6.6 group
Fenerbahce Turkey 5.5 group
Porto Portugal 5.4 last 16
Ajax Holland 5.2 group
Panathinaikos Greece 5.1 group
Olympiakos Greeece 4.9 group
Rosenborg Norway 4.1 group
Anderlecht Belgium 3.9 group
CSKA Moscow Russian 3.8 group
Dynamo Kiev Ukraine 3.3 group
Macc Tel-Aviv Israel 3.2 group
Shakhtar Ukraine 2.9 group
Sparta Prague Czech 2.6 group
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The Czechs may be small in money, but they are big in spirit and skill.
Those two games will not be walkovers.
PS : I wish we could do tables !