Tonight, Arsenal face Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup and it is a sort of reunion for Armand Traore, Henri Lansbury and Nicklas Bendtner.
Last season, Arsenal were knocked out at this stage but will hope to do better with a more better squad. Wenger, yet to win the league cup, is expected to rest his 1st team players and feature fringes like Gibbs, Debuchy, Akpom. El neny and Xhaka should taste action with Perez spearheading the attack. Holding should return to the starting 11 paired by Gabriel.
A 3-1 win will be fine with Perez and Bendtner on the scoresheet. Wouldn’t you love to see a goal from the lord? He has promised he won’t go crazy a la Adebayor but he would celebrate. Wouldn’t you?
Wenger had some nice words for Lord Bendtner and he believes he is being misunderstood:
Sometimes when you are a player of his quality, you just need an opportunity. We know he is a top-quality player, but he needs to play.
“He was very young [when I first saw him], 16 or 17 years old and I thought he was very interesting because he has a good technique, good stature, good pace, good in the air, good link play – he had it all in the locker.
“He had good periods in his career, and then periods when it went less well for him. He could explain it better as to how he assesses his career because he is an honest guy.
“When he makes mistakes, he is big enough to say it is his fault. Sometimes it was not his fault but you felt he had it all in the locker to make a fantastic career.
“Yes, the perception people have of him is that he is overconfident, but I don’t think so. He was sometimes impatient when he was with us. Sometimes he was disappointed not to get the chance and you can understand that.
I truly hope he gets his career up again. I have a soft spot for Nicklas.
We will be watching tonight
SoccerGunz 