Borussia Dortmund lose the plot

On Saturday, Metzelder noted ruefully, he himself didn't help, amateurishly getting caught in possession just outside his box to allow Schalke's Nigerian sub Victor Agali to score the 70th minute opener which momentarily reduced the south terrace to silence.

This is no easy feat. The terrace houses the single largest block of supporters to be found behind any goalmouth in Europe and when all 22,500 of them are screaming with their yellow-and-black scarves held aloft, the sensation is that they're all getting stung to death in some gargantuan beehive.

Yet though Dortmund's Brazilian striker Ewerthon helped them rediscover their voice almost immediately with a headed equaliser, there was otherwise precious little in this sloppy performance to sound many alarms for Arsenal.

Czech Tomas Rosicky, their only standout, suffered thigh and back problems which make him a doubt for the game. Without the dandy white-booted playmaker, their creative options appear to be very limited.

Worse still, Marcio Amoroso, their answer to Thierry Henry, has been languishing back home in Brazil with injury, so coach Matthias Sammer must rely on Ewerthon, swift but lightweight, and his juggernaut Czech foil Jan Koller, slow and heavyweight. On Saturday, they couldn't gel at all.

At the back, Christian Worns, only just back after injury kept him out of the World Cup, is also a doubt after hobbling off with knee trouble. Much will be asked of Metzelder if Stefan Reuter's 35-year-old legs, older even than his coach's, aren't to be found out by Henry.

Sammer must also have felt wistful watching another of his old international team-mates still going strong out there. Andreas Moller, once Dortmund's hero, now just gets plastic cups and vitriol chucked at him for his ultimate sin of donning Schalke blue.

In his playing days, Sammer would bark at Moller to pull his finger out. Now, it seems, he has to make do with bawling out linesmen instead. One took such offence that the ref eventually sent him packing from the dug-out.

So Sammer spent the last few minutes behind the advertising hoardings watching amid the fans who just grumbled ever louder about his team's failure to yet again beat the old enemy, a winless streak which now stretches back four years.

"If we get a point at Highbury, I think the fans would be happy with that," Metzelder pondered. He wasn't about to deny though that three points against Schalke would have made them far happier. It seems that, in Germany as in England, a scruffy old parochial dust-up can still refresh the parts that the Champions League cannot reach.