Wenger picks Tom Cruise as one of his young guns

Arsenal could play Tom Cruise at left back as Arsene Wenger prepares to field a team of young Gunners rather than his top guns against Olympiakos in Athens tonight.

Arsenal's Cruise is an 18-year-old from Islington who has never even made the bench before, and he is joined in the squad by a host of other youngsters with rather less familiar names. The Gunners boss has assembled an 18-man squad that contains 10 teenagers and has an average age of just 20 for the trip to Greece.

Other players who could get a run out tonight include the similarly inexperienced Kyle Bartley, Francis Coquelin, Kerrea Gilbert, Mark Randall and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

The 17-year-old prodigy Jack Wilshere (above) could also get his first Champions League start - and it is a measure of Wenger's selection policy that he is practically a veteran in the squad. The teenager still faces being loaned out in January but is anxious to stay in the Premier League - he will be hoping to impress any possible suitors with a good performance.

The squad is so youthful that the likes of Theo Walcott and Alex Song, still considered emerging talents in the Premier League, will be expected to show their leadership qualities. The side will be skippered by Mikael Silvestre who, at 32 is almost old enough to be the father of some of his team-mates.

By announcing such a young squad Wenger immediately attracted questions about how seriously Arsenal are taking the match as they have already qualified for the knock-out stages as group winners.

He responded with typical diffidence. "Do we respect the competition or not? We will be judged on the result," he shrugged. "That is a gamble I take because I believe these players will do well. It is a risk – if you don't win, you will be criticised."

The game means rather more to Olympiakos. They need a point to guarantee their progress, but they will still go through if Standard Liege fail to beat AZ in the other Group H fixture. Former Premier League player Matt Derbyshire could feature for the Greek Champions. ·