Ramsey could play as injury ravaged Gunners now lose Cesc

The absence of Fabregas, one of seven stitched on members of the team to miss the Champions League third round qualifier against FC Twente Enschede, has unexpectedly opened the door for teenager Aaron Ramsay.

Kolo Toure (hip), Philippe Senderos and Fabregas (both hamstring) have also joined Eduardo, Samir Nasri, Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky in Arsenal's heaving treatment room, but Wenger still expects The Underachievers to swat aside The Great Underdogs, as McClaren enthusiastically referred to Dutch football's second best team yesterday.

Ramsey's revenge: Arsenal new boy could get his chance against FC Twente

'Arsenal are one of the favourites to win the competition and one of the strongest teams we could have met,' claimed McClaren.

'In the two matches against Arsenal we will not just be underdogs, but very big underdogs. Nobody will expect FA Twente to beat Arsenal.

'For our young team it will be something special and they can get a lot of experience in these big matches.'

Talking himself out of the tie is one thing for McClaren, but Wenger was reluctant to be talking up the potential of Ramsay as he prepared to pitch him into the middle of an Arsenal midfield that is likely to include Emmanuel Eboue, Theo Walcott and Denilson.

Ramsay had ringed the week beginning September 22 for his Arsenal debut, but he willingly trades an appearance in the Carling Cup for the European Cup in the hospitable surroundings of Arnhem's Gelredome, borrowed for the first leg because FC Twente's stadium is under reconstruction, this evening.

He started just 14 games for Cardiff and came on as a substitute in the FA Cup final against Portsmouth, but the teenager will be catapulted into a different category when he faces FC Twente in this intriguing first leg.

'Ramsay has a lot to learn, but he has the ingredients to become a good player,' claimed Wenger.

'He has a fantastic engine, he is good on the ball and has reasonable technique, but he must improve on that.

All smiles again: McClaren will be hoping his FC Twente team can pull off a shock against Arsenal

'He has good vision, but he has to improve the defensive aspects of his game and his positioning on the pitch. I don't think he has the tricks to play wide. He doesn't have the dribbling skills.'

It was hardly the most fulsome of praise from a manager who is notorious for blooding the best young players at the earliest opportunity. Once bitten, twice shy perhaps.

Walcott was going to be a world beater when Wenger signed him from Southampton in January 2006 and yet the world is still waiting. Ramsay will not operate under the same kind of pressure.

That will be left to the remaining senior players, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor and William Gallas, to soak up in a match that Arsenal cannot afford to lose.
Not when failure to qualify for the lucrative stages of the Champions League would ensure that another big name would follow Alexander Hleb out of the door before August 31 and certainly not when the opposition manager is McClaren.

Lousy when he was the England head coach, he begins a new life with FC Twente this evening. He was forced to sell two of his best players, Orlando Engelaar and Karim El Ahmadi, in the summer to finance rebuilding work at the club's modest stadium and he runs headlong into one of European football's heavyweights. Good luck.

'When you go to another country it is always expected that you will do better than local people because if you do the same they don't want you,' added Wenger.

'He has done what Bobby Robson did after his international career with England. He's gone to Holland and that's a good way to start his career again. It's good to position yourself as an international coach and FC Twente are  a team with a culture of playing like Ajax.

'They will play the ball out from the back and keep it. Having listened to McClaren it looks like they will try to defend well. They will play 4-5-1.'

So long as he avoids 3-5-2, the formation he disastrously deployed in England's catastrophic defeat in Croatia, he has a chance.