Almunia to miss Gunners clash in Belgrade

Lukasz Fabianski will start in goal for Arsenal in their Champions League encounter at Partizan Belgrade tonight after Manuel Almunia was ruled out with an elbow injury.

The north London club confirmed on their website yesterday morning that the Pole 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 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 against West Brom.”

Wenger also decided yesterday evening to take Kieran Gibbs on board the plane for Serbia as the full-back continues his recovery from the badly bruised foot he suffered in the Carling Cup win at Tottenham last week.

“Kieran Gibbs has a test in training today,” Wenger added.