Rosicky included in Saturday’s squad

The club’s coaching staff have drafted a 21-man list of Arsenal players who will travel to the Underhill Stadium for the traditional preseason curtain-raiser against Barnet FC.

With the squad trimmed down to just 21 players, the talking points will surround inclusions and exclusions.

And in terms of inclusions, the ‘Toms’ have good news to tell.

Both new signing Thomas Vermaelen and injury-plagued Czech international Tomas Rosicky have made the squad.

Arsenal’s latest recruit should attract many observant fans in his debut appearance but attention will also be on his namesake who is set to end a one-and-half year spell on the sidelines.

William Gallas’ involvement is also something to cheer about after the French defender continues to show professionalism since his early end to last season due to injury while speculation of an exit mounts.

Notable exclusions are  Eduardo da Silva and of course, Emmanuel Adebayor who is still working a move to Eastlands.

The Togolese last participated in this traditional preseason event in the summer of 2007 and joins pals Kolo Toure, Alex Song and Emmanuel Eboue as omitted players.

The mixture of a majority of reserves and a handful of first team men is of course, a well-kept policy in this fixture.

All 21 players will definitely play a part tomorrow.

FULL SQUAD

Manuel Almunia
Vito Mannone
William Gallas
Johan Djourou
Mikael Silvestre
Thomas Vermaelen
Tomas Rosicky
Andrey Arshavin
Jack Wilshere
Thomas Cruise
Craig Eastmond
Luke Ayling
Conor Henderson
Francis Coquelin
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Mark Randall
Emmanuel Frimpong
Gilles Sunu
Sanchez Watt
Jay Simpson
Nacer Barazite