Wilshere out of Anderlecht clash



Wilshere has been nursing a knee injury and has not played since the Gunners beat Anderlecht 2-1 in the reverse fixture in Belgium 12 days ago

The 22-year-old is now sick and will not be involved in the game at the Emirates Stadium, although manager Arsene Wenger expects him to recover in time for Arsenal's trip to Swansea on Sunday

Wenger has not decided whether to start Theo Walcott, who made his first appearance since January 4 following a cruciate ligament injury against Burnley on Saturday

Arsenal could seal qualification to the knock-out stages with two games to spare if they beat Anderlecht and Borussia Dortmund also overcome Galatasaray

''If we can seal qualification I would describe the feeling as satisfied to have the job done,'' Wenger said

''We respect Anderlecht because they gave us a tough game and we had a bit of a miraculous win because we needed to go until the last minute but that was as well our quality in the game

''We have been warned and now we want to win the game again at the Emirates.''

Anderlecht boss Besnik Hasi has accused Arsenal of underestimating his side in the teams' previous meeting and says his players have nothing to fear in the return fixture

The Belgian side looked on course for a memorable victory over the Gunners two weeks ago as they led 1-0 with one minute of normal time remaining in Brussels, but goals from Kieran Gibbs and Lukas Podolski sealed a remarkable away win.

The result means Anderlecht have only one point - five fewer than Arsenal - in Group D, but Hasi has challenged his team to deliver a repeat of their excellent performance in north London.

"I think Arsenal underestimated us in the first game, probably," Hasi said.

"If you want to beat the top teams in the Champions League, you need to be at your top level and hope they are not at theirs.

"From our game two weeks ago, Arsenal get a mental boost after (what happened in the) the last three minutes.

"They have had a boost in confidence - you can see a few of their players are now playing much better.

"They want to win the game

If they win they can go through with nine points."

The Gunners will be desperate to finish top of the group to avoid a difficult draw in the last 16, but Wenger said on Monday that Anderlecht can be an even more dangerous opponent on their travels than at home

"I understand what Wenger is saying," Hasi said.

"If you are a little team maybe you need to play counter-attacking football, but I don't think we have the qualities to play on the counter-attack.

"We have qualities to play football and I want my young team to really go for it against Arsenal - I want them to play their game and play without fear.

"If Arsenal are better than us, we will congratulate them, but in the first game I don't think we got what we deserved."

The Gunners will be forced to field another makeshift defence with Laurent Koscielny (Achilles) and Mathieu Debuchy (ankle) still out, meaning Nacho Monreal is likely to take his place at the heart of the back four again

Anderlecht have a number of injury problems of their own, with influential midfielder Steven Defour, forward Matias Suarez, left-back Fabrice N'Sakala and centre-back Bram Nuytinck all struggling with injuries

Source : PA

Source: PA