Champions League team news: Wayne Rooney has been ruled out of Manchester United's Champions League trip to Valencia. Alex Ferguson's squad fly out to Spain on Tuesday morning but the England striker Rooney will not be among the travelling party after the 24-year-old was substituted in the second half of Sunday's draw with Bolton due to an ankle injury.
Rooney's form had led to speculation he could be rested at the Mestalla, but Ferguson has no such headache now and his only dilemma appears to be whether to start Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen, or to ask the Bulgarian to lead the line.
Antonio Valencia’s long-term injury and the two-week absence of Ryan Giggs would suggest he might opt for a front pairing, given the two wingers would be the perfect foil for a lone striker.
Owen scored a second-half equaliser against Bolton at the weekend, while Berbatov scored a hat-trick against Liverpool last week and has looked like a man in form this season.
Rio Ferdinand is expected to return to the defence as they look to breathe fresh life into their campaign in a game Ferguson felt was sufficiently important to miss last week’s Carling Cup tie against Scunthorpe in order to go on a spying mission.
With three successive goalless draws in Spain to look back on, including the 2008 semi-final against Barcelona, United do have memories of defensive solidity to fall back on, even if it goes against Ferguson’s belief that victory is essential.
Lukasz Fabianski will start in goal for Arsenalin their Champions League encounter at Partizan Belgradetomorrow night after Manuel Almunia was ruled out with an elbow injury.
The north London club confirmed this morning that the Poland international will take over between the posts with Almunia having hurt his elbow when he gave away a penalty in Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat to West Brom.
“We have Manual Almunia out,” said manager Arsene Wenger. “He has a problem with his elbow. He caught it when he made the penalty on Saturday.
The Frenchman insisted he had no plans to drop Almunia had it not been for the injury.
“The goalkeeper is always the easy target, the easy scapegoat,” he said. “But we win together and we lose together even if people think he made a mistake on the second goal.”
Wenger will decide during training whether full back Kieran Gibbs can board the plane for Serbia as he continues his recovery from the badly bruised foot he suffered in the Carling Cup win at Tottenham last Tuesday.
Frank Lampard will miss Chelsea'smatch against Olympique Marseilletomorrow and has also been ruled out of England's Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro.
The midfielder needs at least two more weeks rest to recover from his hernia surgery, also ruling him out of Sunday's Premier League derby against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
“Frank will not play tomorrow,” said Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti. “He will also miss the next England international. It is a bigger problem than we first thought but he should be fit after the international break.”
Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba sits out the last of his two-match ban against his former side, while Salomon Kalou (thigh) and Yossi Benayoun (calf) are out injured. Gael Kakuta has recovered from his back injury.
Lionel Messi has been named in Barcelona's19-man squad for the trip to play Rubin Kazanon Wednesday.
The Argentina forward has not been given the go-ahead to return to action by medical staff yet, but trained with the team on Monday and will fly to Russia.
The world player of the year has missed Barca's last two league games after suffering ankle ligament damage away to Atletico Madrid a week ago.
Real Madrid'sproblems in front of goal are starting to worry coach Jose Mourinho, and a trip to France to play Auxerretomorrow does little to settle the unease at the club.
Under Manuel Pellegrini last season Real lost 1-0 away to Olympique Lyon in the last 16 of the competition, the lack of an away goal costing them dear when they drew 1-1 at home to go out at the same stage for the sixth season in a row.
Mourinho won the European Cup with Inter Milan last May and has been recruited to improve Real's performances in a competition they are trying to win for a 10th time.
He is still in the early stages of construction with his new charges and already has his defence tightly locked. They have only conceded once in six outings, but goals have been hard to come by.
Their humbling 0-0 draw at promoted Levante in La Liga on Saturday had Mourinho scratching his head.
“It isn't that we lack quality because we all know we have proven goalscorers, but at present they aren’t scoring,” he said. “This is my only worry.”
Cristano Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain all missed gilt-edged chances against Levante, and a general sense of anxiety pervades with their ever-impatient fans getting on their backs.
A positive, however, is that Real produced probably their best performance so far this season when they beat Ajax 2-0 in their Group G opener two weeks ago.
Auxerre are hardly in intimidating form. They lost their opening group match 2-0 at AC Milan and squandered a two-goal lead at home to Nancy in Ligue 1 on Saturday. A 2-2 draw left them down near the foot of the standings after seven matches.
Auxerre should welcome back Poland striker Ireneusz Jelen, who sat out the Nancy game because of knee pains.
Werder Bremenwill be without striker Claudio Pizarro, captain Torsten Frings and defender Clemens Fritz for Wednesday's match away to Rafa Benitez's Inter Milan.