Manager Arsene Wenger confirmed that Arsenal will today face Liverpool without injured Abou Diaby, Jack Wilshere, Johan Djourou, Armand Traore, Kieran Gibbs and Tomas Rosicky.

The Frenchman declared that Thomas Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna or Carl Jenkinson will start at left-back with the Gunners having also midfielder Alex Song and winger Gervinho suspended after they failed to keep their cool, last week, against Newcastle United and specifically against Joey Barton with both of them set to miss the next three Premier League games.

On Ryo Miyaichi, the Arsenal boss explained that the Japanese will be in the squad even thought he returned from Japan on Thursday with the manager again praising the 18-year old for his determination, fighting spirit and technique.

Today’s game will kick-off at 12:45 in the UK with the Gunners then set to fly for Italy ahead of Wednesday’s 2nd leg Champions League Qualifying game against Udinese taking a narrow one nil win from the 1st leg achieved thanks to Theo Walcott’s early goal.

In Friday’s press conference, Wenger said:

The news are that we have Gervinho and [Alex] Song suspended, as you know, that [Abou] Diaby and [Jack] Wilshere are injured and that [Johan] Djourou and [Armand] Traore will not be available and [Kieran] Gibbs will not be available.

[At left-back] I have the option of [Thomas] Vermaelen, I have the option of [Bacary] Sagna, the option of [Carl] Jenkinson so we have a few options available.

We will give Tomas [Rosicky] a rest tomorrow, it’s not a bad injury, he should be back with us on Monday but he’s rested tomorrow. [Ryo Miyaichi] is back from Japan yesterday and he’s in the squad. Apart from that, the morale is strong, the belief is strong, overall I believe we had a decent start.

We are impressed by Ryo’s quality, his spirit and his attitude. Everybody is absolutely convinced he will be an Arsenal player. He has a good understanding of the game, he is very quick, he is a fighter and has all the attributes that you love of a player at the top level.

He is 18 years old and has come from College football straight to professional football so we want to give him time to adapt to the Premier League but it will be very quick.