Admittedly, Juventus are still the undisputed force in Serie A as they were in 1980 just before I joined them, but whereas we played against an all-Italian side which included Dino Zoff, Claudio Gentile, Lolo Cabrini, Gaetano Scirea, Marco Tardelli, Franco Causio and Roberto Bettega . . . the backbone of the international team which would go on to win the World Cup two years later . . . Juventus have long since opened their doors to foreign players.

The revolution at Arsenal has of course been even more radical. In that Cup Winners Cup semi-final, we were essentially a team from Britain and Ireland, and the fact that four Dubliners . . .

Frank Stapleton, David O'Leary, John Devine and myself . . . could take on the might of Italian football and win, would probably be unthinkable nowadays.

Given that Sol Campbell has only an outside chance of making the bench for Tuesday's Champions League first leg at Highbury, and that Ashley Cole is still recovering from injury, Arsenal's starting XI almost certainly won't include a single British player.

Arsene Wenger's response to the criticism that the club has somehow lost its British soul is that he looks at a player's ability before his passport, and it's the same for me. The reality is that the pool of British and Irish players has been shrinking at a time when the Premiership has been able to generate substantial amounts of money.

That cash has given the top English clubs the muscle to attract some of the world's best players, and there's also no escaping the fact that quality foreign players are usually not as expensive as their British and Irish counterparts.

Arsenal have produced many players who are operating in the Premiership at the moment, but no one could argue that any of them should be in our current first team. I face the challenge every day of nurturing English talent at the club, and of trying to develop players for the first team, but I've realised over the years that for a player to make the breakthrough he has to be of an exceptional standard.

The example of Cole, who was England's left-back after only 10 first-team games, proves my point.

In addition to producing home-grown talent, Wenger's philosophy from day one has been to try to attract good foreign youngsters, and in Cesc Fabregas, he appears to have unearthed a special player. Although he's still developing physically, Fabregas has vision and intelligence, he rarely gets caught with the ball, and more recently, his passes have been really telling. Right now, he's playing as well as anyone in the Premiership.

Clearly, he will have to be at his best for Tuesday's first leg which marks the return of Patrick Vieira to Highbury. While injuries took their toll, Vieira's absence was most definitely a factor in Arsenal's difficulties during the first half of the season. His presence, and the way he is constantly in the game, were exactly the sort of qualities we were missing for a while.

There's also no doubt that Vieira's departure caused Wenger to adjust his style of play for European competition to a five-man midfield featuring Gilberto Silva in front of the defence and with Fabregas as the playmaker, and I expect the same line-up this time.

Arsenal are going into this tie in much better shape than for the games against Real Madrid, but there is also increased expectation. Even if it will be no disgrace to be eliminated by the most powerful team in Italy at the moment, if Arsenal do go out, I'm sure there will be pundits who will say the season has been a disappointment, and that beating a faltering Madrid side wasn't really that much of an achievement.

I don't go along with that view because the team has been in transition, but I do agree that the players still have much to prove, and that the defence, which was so solid against Madrid, will be up against David Trezeguet and Zlatan Ibrahimovic who are much more of a threat than an unfit Ronaldo, and Raul on the way back from injury.

It appears from the draw that if Arsenal are to go on and win the Champions League for the first time, they will have to beat the best of Serie A because their semifinal opponents are likely to be Inter Milan who should come through against Villareal, and on the other side of the draw, I'm taking AC Milan to reach the final by beating Lyon and then Barcelona.

You might think that with such top-quality opposition left in the competition, Arsenal could be better served focusing on the job of finishing fourth in the Premiership, but you just can't tell the players that while they're preparing to take on the champions of Italy, the real interest is in the league.

The win against Madrid has given the team an opportunity, and even though Juventus are much more efficient and solid than the Spaniards, it just wouldn't make any sense to downplay the importance of the Champions League.

Apart from Vieira's return which gives the tie an even greater edge, it's also worth mentioning that Thierry Henry . . . now in my view one of the three best strikers in the world . . . might have a point to prove against the club which failed to cultivate his talents. Then there's the intriguing tactical contest between Fabio Capello and Wenger.

I can see this Juventus side being more adventurous than the one which camped in their own half at Highbury back in 1980.

Frank Stapleton scored that night to give us a 1-1 draw, and then we won 1-0 in Turin thanks to a header by Paul Vaessen who sadly died a few years ago.

The make-up of the teams will be very different this time, and the games will probably be different as well, but I'd gladly take the same result.