Blues aiming to catch Arsenal cold

It has taken Birmingham City 16 years to drag themselves back into the top flight yet Steve Bruce's side will realise in a few, short weeks the mountain they must climb to simply stay there. Birmingham open their campaign away at last season's Double winners Arsenal today and their next four fixtures include matches against Leeds and Liverpool.

As if a trip to Highbury is not a daunting enough first Premiership experience, Birmingham will almost certainly be without the man upon whom so much of their season will hang, their record signing Clinton Morrison, who is struggling to overcome a groin problem suffered in the pre-season friendly at Stoke. They will also be missing the experience of Robbie Savage, another summer signing, who is suspended after collecting 15 bookings last season with Leicester City. That means that their most recent purchase, the former Crystal Palace midfielder Jovan Kirovski, is promoted into the squad after obtaining a work permit earlier this week.

Yet Birmingham's stand-in captain Jeff Kenna is urging his team-mates to forget about who will not be playing and concentrate on being competitive from the very first whistle. "We know we are playing the big guns to start with, but you can't be alarmed and we can't go there afraid." he said. "If you do that, you're not going to do yourself justice. I suppose if there ever is a good time to get them then it's early in the season. You definitely don't want to be playing them in February or March when they seem to hit a vein of form where they can't be beaten."

Bruce is also looking forward to the encounter, and more particularly the midfield battle between another of his signings, the Senegal captain Aliou Cissé, and Arsenal's captain Patrick Vieira. Indeed, it was Cissé's performance for his country against Vieira in their shock World Cup win over France that finally persuaded Bruce to sign him from Paris St Germain. "I had him watched before the World Cup but once I had seen him up against Vieira, and he was not disturbed by him, then that rubber-stamped the deal for me," Bruce said. "They are both from Senegal and I would think there will be a few fireworks."