Arsenal Close To Breaking Title Drought As Robin Van Persie Fit for Key Games

Arsene Wenger was clear that Arsenal would take the Carling Cup tie against Wigan Athletic seriously, and true to his word, he fielded a strong team featuring a number of internationals. In the prematch conference, he also hinted that Robin van Persie would return to the starting 11 in the Carling Cup in a bid to improve his match fitness ahead of important encounters against Manchester United and Chelsea, later in this month.

It was a really strong team put out by the Frenchman, featuring the likes of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Laurent Koscielny, Denilson and Nicklas Bendtner with the Dutchman Robin van Persie captaining the team in the absence of Cesc Fabregas.

Though Arsenal missed a number of chances in the game, they were able to score a fortuitous goal through an unlucky deflection of Antonin Alcatraz and then Nicklas Bendtner scored a goal in the second half to condemn Wigan Athletic and progress to the semifinals of the competition.

It has been a frustrating long wait for Arsenal supporters and the players themselves, and the Gunners will look to win their first trophy other than the Emirates Cup after moving to the Emirates stadium from Highbury. Manchester United were knocked out of the competition by West Ham ensuring that Arsenal had no Champions League team to face in the semifinals.

The fate of Arsenal conquering the League Cup is in their own hands because should they play to their potential, it is hard to envisage them losing any of the remaining teams in the competition (and that includes Aston Villa).

Though it will be tiresome, Arsenal will benefit from a two-legged semifinal because they should prove their quality over the two games even if they do suffer a shock result in one of them. The best way to handle the encounter would be to play a decent team in the first leg to secure a victory and then with less pressure, Arsenal can win the tie.

Wenger has got his blend of youth and experience for the Carling Cup quite spot on because Arsenal have enough youngsters and there is no need to develop them from the reserves at the cost of losing the cup.

There are many players on the team who are starved of first team appearances and these games could help them be sharp for the Premier League games, when their services will be required from the bench.

With games against Fulham, Stoke, Manchester United and Chelsea coming up in the month of December, the Gunners would love to have their best players back to full fitness.

And news on the injury front is looking positive for once, though it is still not known when Thomas Vermaelen will be back for the Gunners. There are many reports emanating from various sections of the media that captain Fabregas will be back in the squad for the games against Manchester United and Chelsea, which is excellent news for the Gunners.

The injury prone Robin van Persie made his first start after recovering fully from the injury two weeks back, and although he did look rusty at times, he also showed his amazing creativity on many occasions, most notably when he slid a ball through to Carlos Vela who should have opened the scoring against Wigan.

Although Marouane Chamakh has impressed for the Gunners since his move from Bordeaux, the return of van Persie will be a huge boost as he is a lethal finisher and has caused problems for many big teams in the past.

One interesting thing which could be observed from yesterday was that Van Persie was playing behind the central striker, and this could be a tactic which could be utilised by Wenger in order to play both Chamakh and Van Persie in important fixtures in the absence of Fabregas.

The Gunners are in a good position in all the competitions and with the return of Robin van Persie and the imminent return of Aaron Ramsey, who I believe was decent when he came on as a substitute for Nottingham Forest, Arsenal have a great chance to end their frustrating title wait.

The Carling Cup seems to be the easiest trophy to win at the moment, but Wenger has already downplayed the importance of the League Cup in comparison to the EPL and the Champions League. Nevertheless, the trophy drought is playing on Wenger’s mind and he will not be pleased with anything less than a trophy in February.