“You know how much I rate Kolo Toure but at the back it is about partnerships, it’s about positioning and it’s about current form as well,” said Wenger.

But hopes of establishing the Gallas-Silvestre partnership at the Britannia Stadium have ended with the skipper’s injury, and there will also be a late check on Emmanuel Eboue.

“It looks like Gallas will be out and maybe Eboue too,” Wenger told Arsenal TV Online. “We’ll assess him tomorrow.

“It is a little recurrence of the hamstring for William and for Manu it is his knee. He is not running properly at the moment. He still has pain there.”

The Gunners are looking to bounce back after throwing away a two-goal advantage against Spurs with only a minute left on the clock.

Striker Emmanuel Adebayor has told his team-mates they will never be Premier League champions without developing a winning mentality that was lacking against their rivals.

“To be champions in this way? You can never be a champion. That is for sure,” Adebayor said.

The 24-year-old Togo striker suggested Arsenal thought the match was won heading into the final minutes of the game, echoing the naivety Wenger has highlighted.

They also looked in control against Hull earlier in the campaign and ended up losing, while last season their title challenge fell apart after Birmingham earned a late draw at St Andrews.

Even though they earned a point, Spurs players celebrated like they had won after Aaron Lennon’s leveller at the death.

“There is a lot of disappointment,” Adebayor added. “We are down at the moment because we did everything to get the three points and we ended up with one.

“We feel very sorry for ourselves that the things are not going the right way. It was one of the most difficult games in my life because I cannot understand that after 90 minutes we were leading 4-2 – I don’t know how we finished with a draw.

“It’s very easy to give up because we were 4-2 up and maybe thinking the game was finished. With five, six or seven minutes to go, maybe in our head the game was over.”