By Boris Mellor
November 21 2005

Arsenal fans will remember that FC Thun gave us our hardest game of the group at Highbury. True we went down to ten men, but it wasn’t looking that easy with eleven.

As Thun are at home this time it could be even tougher, and there will be no wily Bergkamp to break the deadlock. However this time we have Henry available, and hopefully van Persie can stay on for ninety minutes.

It may be time to rest Henry and leave it up to van Persie and Reyes to do the business. He can always be launched from the bench. It’s a long time since we had such a wide choice of strikers in the CL. But most importantly it’s a chance for Toure to rest, and for Alexander Song to get a start at top level. Wenger is definite he will start him. Hopefully Senderos can have a good game, and Eboue return from injury. I suspect Campbell will have to play as neither Cole nor Clichy available. Although a back four of Eboue, Senderos, Cygan, Lauren are a possibility.

But Wenger says he wants to win and doesn’t want a Lager Cup type team out there. I feel it’s more important not to lose. It’s unusual that at this early stage we have already qualified, and that as fans we can relax. Nor am I convinced that first place is that important, teams who finished second last year got far easier draws than us. Wenger may tell the team he wants a win, but footballers are ornery critters, and may forget his instructions  in exchange for taking it easy.

However FC Thun will have to attack, as less than a win will be of little use to them. So it could be fun.

Arsenal from : Poom, Lauren, Campbell, Cygan, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Pires, Henry, van Persie, Almunia, Song, Eboue, Flamini, Senderos, Reyes, Lupoli, Owusu-Abeyie, Bendtner, Djourou.