Rangers will travel to London today for their game against Arsenal with a team ravaged by injury - and bolstered by the addition of guest players.

The Ibrox team lost Richard Gough to Kansas City Wiz last week. They lost David Robertson to Leeds United yesterday. And they lost Alex Cleland, Gordan Petric and Joachim Bjorklund through injury yesterday.

Manager Walter Smith was forced to send out emergency messages yesterday and that means that the Nigel Winterburn Testimonial will have the star billing it deserves. The Everton pair, Dave Watson and David Unsworth, will appear for the Ibrox club, as will their former central defender, Steven Pressley, now with Dundee United, and Chris Waddle will achieve his life-long ambition of playing for the Glasgow side.

Smith said: ''I wanted to keep faith with the Arsenal people and make sure that we had class players for them. The injuries made it a worry, but I have spent the day on the telephone to make sure that we don't let anyone down.''

Paul Gascoigne will team up with his old England and Spurs team-mate and he will be watched by England manager Glenn Hoddle in the constant monitoring which inevitably surrounds the enfant terrible of English football. Last week Hoddle's right-hand man, John Gorman, assessed Gascoigne at Tannadice against Dundee United. Now Hoddle will see him once more to guage his fitness for England's summer programme of games.

Full back Robertson left Rangers yesterday, the first casualty the Ibrox club have suffered under the Bosman ruling over contracts and transfers.

But any hurt was eased with the transfer fee of close to #500,000 which they received for the player who cost them less than a million pounds five years ago. If Robertson had moved to Europe, which was an option, then Rangers would have been paid nothing.

I understand that Robertson has agreed a deal with Leeds worth around #500,000 a year as far as a basic salary is concerned.

George Graham, the Leeds manager, sees him as an ideal replacement for his own long serving left back, Tony Dorigo, ironically once linked with Rangers.

Meantime, Rangers travel south with the still present threat of crowd trouble hanging over the Highbury game. Four years ago the Ibrox club was shamed by hooliganism at Sunderland and since then have baulked at invitations south of the Border.

But Ibrox security chief Alastair Hood has visited London and insists: ''We are very hopeful that the game will go off without trouble. You must remember that we have gone into Europe 26 times in recent years and not had a single arrest. But we know that this London visit has problems.

''For example, Scotland went to Gothenburg the other week and had trouble caused by fans who are not normally travelling to watch the national side. We worry that we could have fans posing as Rangers supporters who are only there to cause trouble. There is a criminal element involved in all of this.

''However, I have had talks with the police in London and also with Arsenal and we believe that we have taken all the proper precautions.'' With another testimonial looming - for Everton's Dave Watson, who plays for the Scottish champions tonight - Rangers must be trouble-free.

Around 3000 fans are expected, but more could be there because of the following for Rangers down south.

q RICHARD Gough has made a great start to his new career in America with Kansas City Wizards. In his debut against Los Angeles Galaxy, Gough helped Kansas to a 1-0 victory - their first shut-out of the season.

q Aston Villa manager Brian Little is set to smash the club's transfer record by signing Liverpool striker Stan Collymore in a #7m deal today.

If the move goes ahead, it will almost double Villa's transfer record, beating the #4m Little paid Bolton for midfielder Sasa Curcic last August.