Neil Banfield will give run outs to Carling Cup hopefuls Jack Wilshere and Łukasz Fabiański this evening as the Reserves entertain Aston Villa in a top-of-the-table crunch clash.
Banfield has also included Sanchez Watt, who extended his stay with the club yesterday, Fran Mérida and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas who is set to make his first start since completing a three-month-loan spell with Blackpool. Young forward Benik Afobe is expected to be named on the bench.
Wilshere has been missing since Arsenal’s Carling Cup third round fixture with West Brom and subsequently missed Liverpool’s visit to the Emirates in the same competition. Jack is expected to play an hour or possibly more as he puts the finishing touches to his rehabilitation ahead of the Manchester City quarter-final which is looming.
Arsenal.com will announce the full squad later and Nick Love will be around with a preview shortly after.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Great to see jack wilshere back
Any truth in the rumours linkin us with raheem stirling?
J. pls tell me if there is any truth in it.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2744570/Sterling-effort-from-Gunners.html
I hope we sign this Raheem Stirling kid because even though he is only 14 years old he looks a bit special IMO.
Good to see Jack back.
Jack, JET, and Merida behind Watt could prove to be very entertaining.
Do you think Afobes inclusion on the bench is to show him that his future lies at Arsenal and not Barca??
Be good to see Merida, JET and Jack get run outs.
Where do you think JET’s future lies in light of the recent formation shift. I think he would operate well in a central position, as the box to box midfielder to complement the holding player and the creative player.
Be good to see what progress he has made in his time away.
Do you think Afobe has an outside shot of a place on the bench at City? It will be difficult, because surely Walcott, Vela, Merida, Wilshire, Watt and Rosicky will be the obvious names in contention to feature in the squad so it will be interesting to see how he handles the step up, especially against an stong outfit like Villa.
The Sterling thing is rubbish. He was very good for England in the Victory Shield and of a sudden the gutter press seem to think it’s impossible for him to say QPR. The Sun article is poor.
Jack will be sorely needed for Arsenal down the road. How is his rehab going? http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
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If Raheem Stirling’s head has been turned which has probably happend, i reckon he will be off regardless of whether the Sun’s artical is true or not and if it has, i personally would like to think that we would throw our hat into the ring for him.
I don’t think its fair to speculate and say this and that. I certainly don’t believe we’re after him, he’s played well in a couple of games but Arsenal scout players over a long period of time. I think this is just lazy from the Sun.
Great, admitting he had a problem was the first step, and the Betty Frod has a great reputation fot nurturing young talents..
Thats Ford, sorry..
I wouldn’t be surprised if we were interested in Sterling but like JS says, we scout players over a longer period of time and not ones who have suddenly become overnight sensations.
daspecimen – I don’t think Afobe has any chance whatsoever to play a part against City in the CC. He has barely featured for the reserves. I would love to see him get a run out against Villa tonight though, although i’m not expecting it.
SebCesc – With all due respect to JS, i never thought for a second that Afobe could be going to Barca. Obviously i could be wrong, (and obviously JS knows more than me about the goings on behind the scenes) but Afobe can have a HUGE future in the game if he remains at Arsenal and learns his trade. Barca will ruin him. They won’t spend as much time developing his game as they will with their own home-grown products and Benik’s loved-ones would have probably notified him of this if the lad didn’t know it already.
I feel, if he has been included in the squad tonight, is because he has improved his all round game recently. His movement off the ball to make space for others and his general link-up play has improved quite a bit this year and although he hasn’t been banging the goals in like past seasons thus far, he has led the line on his lonesome quite well.
Seems like a strong squad NB is opting for tonight against our main competition for this PAL title which tells me one thing – that he wants to win this league.
TDG – if barca is so bad why did ar5-1 go and steal there 2 academy players for peanuts. barca have a better record of producing and playing their own players. ar5-1 either steal or buy ready made players for their 1st team squad.
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I actually saw the Raheem Sterling thing on IMscouting.com, which is a proffesional scouting site so its not as rubbish as you might think.