Cole out for Gunners

Ashley Cole failed to recover from illness and was left out of Arsenal’s starting line-up for their Champions League last 16 first leg tie at Bayern Munich tonight.

Arsene Wenger, who was also without Sol Campbell due to an ankle injury, had been hoping that Cole would shake off the after-effects of a virus.

However, while the left-back was still included as a substitute, he was replaced on the pitch for the third consecutive game by Gael Clichy.

Edu was at least able to return in central midfield after a hamstring injury, although Dennis Bergkamp, who does not fly, was not in Munich.

Bayern were without the influential Michael Ballack but still left both Mehmet Scholl and Owen Hargreaves on the bench on a freezing night.

Although snow had been only partially cleared from the stands, the pitch looked in relatively good condition.

Bayern Munich: Kahn, Sagnol, Kovac, Lucio, Lizarazu, Demichelis, Salihamidzic, Frings, Ze Roberto, Makaay, Pizarro. Subs: Rensing, Scholl, Jeremies, Hargreaves, Linke, Schweinsteiger, Guerrero.

Arsenal: Lehmann, Lauren, Toure, Cygan, Clichy, Ljungberg, Vieira, Edu, Pires, Reyes, Henry. Subs: Almunia, Cole, Van Persie, Fabregas, Flamini, Senderos, Cregg.

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark)