Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger opted not to risk France defender Mikael Silvestre for the start of Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Manchester United.
Silvestre has been struggling with a groin injury and was only fit enough to make the bench, with Swiss centre-back Johan Djourou starting alongside Kolo Toure at the heart of Arsenal’s defence.
However Wenger was able to welcome back Robin van Persie after the Dutch forward missed Arsenal’s last four matches with a groin injury suffered in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
As expected, Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was fit to play following the rib injury he sustained in the 1-0 first leg victory over Arsenal last week.
Patrice Evra, United’s French left-back, was also named in Sir Alex Ferguson’s starting line-up despite suffering a leg injury at Middlesbrough on Saturday.
Wayne Rooney started up front on his own for United, with Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez on the bench.
im about to believe that wenger is a big fan of manchester united how could he do this to us fans with his little boy gibbs. when experienced emanuel was there at the bench the boy from his last week game he was shaky and repeated the same thing yesterday. they should reconsider this man as asernal coach. sir alex doesnt sell his players and refuses to sell them while on the other side wenger has opened a shop for players, but why wenger? we can see you are developing young players but there should be some experience in between the team. want to say manchester survived because gael clichy was not there otherwise we would be going to rome on the 27th