Uefa Champions League, Semi-final first leg
Venue: Old Trafford Date: Wednesday, 29 April Kick-off: 1945 BST
Coverage: Sky Sports 2 and Radio 5 live 

Manchester United will be missing defender Gary Neville for Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg.

John O’Shea could be preferred to Rafael Da Silva and fit-again Wes Brown at right-back, while Ryan Giggs will hope to make his 800th club appearance.

Arsenal centre-back Mikael Silvestre (back) is a doubt along with left-back Kieran Gibbs (ankle).

Fellow full-back Gael Clichy and Robin van Persie are both out, while Andrey Arshavin is not eligible to play.

Clichy hopes to return from a back injury in time for the second leg.

“He could be back for the second Manchester United game,” said Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger. “He has a scan. We’ll go from there. He has a chance to be back in full training next week.”

Arsenal striker Carlos Vela, of Mexico, was kept away from training on Monday because of fears over swine flu.

Vela was visited by friends from his homeland where there has been an outbreak of the disease.

Wenger said: “It looked to be a massive problem because we were asked on Monday to keep him at home and not get him to the training ground.

“Now he has the all-clear and on Tuesday he was free again to attend training.

“It was basically down to the fact he had visitors from Mexico, friends who came to visit him last week.”

United, by contrast, have the more enviable task of deciding which of their star strikers to include.

Carlos Tevez has not been a first-choice this term, but came on at half-time to help overturn a two-goal deficit against Tottenham last weekend.

In defence, Brown, who has managed just a couple of substitute appearances since injuring his foot in October, trained at Carrington on Tuesday, but could be one of the players who must be omitted from the provisional squad.

 

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Man Utd (from): Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak, O’Shea, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Rafael, Ronaldo, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs, Park, Berbatov, Rooney, Tevez.

Arsenal (from): Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Nasri, Song, Denilson, Fabregas, Walcott, Adebayor, Fabianski, Djourou, Eduardo, Bendtner, Diaby, Vela, Ramsey, Eboue.

 

Manchester United and Arsenal have never previously met in a match in European competition.

However, Manchester United have played English opposition five times in Europe and Arsenal have played another English team four times.

United have never been knocked out of European competition by an English club; The Gunners have never progressed from a European tie against another English club. They lost 3-2 on aggregate against Chelsea in a 2003-04 Champions League quarter-final and lost 5-3 to Liverpool at the same stage last season.

These clubs have met 205 times in all competitions; Manchester United have won 82, Arsenal 78 with 45 drawn. Arsenal need to score once to total 300 goals against United, who have netted 309 against the Gunners.

They are still to meet at Old Trafford in the Premier League this season, on 16 May. The Gunners won the league fixture at the Emirates, 2-1 on 8 November with a brace from Samir Nasri. A 90th minute goal from United substitute Rafael set up a nail-biting finish.

This will be the 38th time the two managers, who are the longest serving in the Premier League, have faced each other. Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger has the edge. The Gunners have won 14 of the previous 37 clashes under Wenger, United 13 under Sir Alex Ferguson. Eight of the 10 other games finished level and two were decided on penalty shoot-outs; United won the 2003 Community Shield, and Arsenal the 2005 FA Cup final on penalties.

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