Arsenal's injury worries continue

Arsene Wenger sees little prospect of Arsenal's injury problems abating for Saturday's clash with Manchester City.

The Gunners have been without Andrey Arshavin, Manuel Almunia, William Gallas, Alexandre Song and Denilson in recent weeks, and the manager admits only the Cameroon utility man could come into contention.

Asked about the likelihood of players recovering, Wenger told Arsenal TV Online: "Maybe Song - he has a test tomorrow and we'll see. Apart from that, nobody is back.

"Andrey Arshavin is out. Everyone else - Gallas, Almunia, Denilson - is still out too."

Almunia's wrist injury means Lukasz Fabianski could be handed a chance to redeem himself after his glaring error gifted Wigan an equaliser.

Fellow Pole Wojciech Szczesny has, meanwhile, been impressing during a loan spell at League One Brentford.

The 19-year-old - who appeared in Arsenal's Carling Cup win over West Brom earlier this season - believes he can return to Emirates Stadium and challenge for the keeper's jersey on a regular basis.

"I knew I was coming here to prove myself good enough to be in goal for Arsenal and hopefully I have convinced some people I can do a job for them next year," Szczesny told the Surrey Comet.

"I believe that if I had been given a chance at Arsenal before I came here, I would have been good enough. I just came here to prove it.

"Hopefully some people - including Arsene Wenger - will see me in that number one place next year."

Szczesny feels his spell with the Bees has given him extra confidence for the challenges ahead to make the breakthrough with the Gunners.

"I have said before that you need to learn the basics in this league to then take that back to Arsenal," he said.

"You might have seen in recent months that Arsenal goalkeepers have had problems with the basics.

"You need to make sure that when you come to the lower leagues you do not make mistakes and if you pull off a couple of great saves that is a bonus.

"I believe I have done that and only made a couple of mistakes. Things have gone well."