Arsenal midfielder Mark Randall is striving to be fit for Tuesday’s Carling Cup Fourth Round tie with Wigan at Emirates.
The 19-year old, who had a spell on loan at Burnley last season, impressed alongside Aaron Ramsey at the heart of the Gunners midfield in the Third Round victory over Sheffield United in September and knows that the Carling Cup is his only realistic chance of starting first-team games.
However, he picked up a slight injury last week which subsequently ruled him out of the Reserves game with Fulham. Mark returned to training on Thursday and will be desperate to prove his fitness ahead of Tuesday’s match.
Frenchman Francis Coquelin could step in in Randall’s absence, whilst Henri Lansbury is another option although Arsene Wenger seems to prefer Lansbury on the wing. There will be more build up to the Carling Cup game in the days to come.
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Also, NOrdtveit cant play according to his agent. He can only train with Arsenal as they were not allowed to recall Nordtveit I believe. The only sure thing is that he can only train until January apparantly!
That seems unlikely BooMeR, because surely Arsenal would only do that if they felt Salamanca was actually pushing his progress back (or if he really didn’t like it). I’ve heard that rumour before but it seems so pointless if it was true.
Neil Banfield said before the Fulham reserve match last week that Nordtveit can’t play until January 1.
I really want to see Simpson start this one. It could be his big chance to impress Le Boss.
What do you rate his chances of starting as?
Jay Simpson is and never will be good enough so why start him in the Carlng Cup
I think Simpson has a good chance , I remenbering bursting on to the scene as a 16 year old in reserves and scoring 4 goals in his first 3 reserve starts , trust me let the kid find his confidence and he will make it have faith
Simpson may have to play. No other strikers with Bendtner being in the first team. Shame Barazite is not here or he could have played just off of carlos Vela.Maybe Rui Fonte is and option?
Lets start a vote on this Blog weather you want him to start or not. I think he should start or he will be the new Andy Cole a player who slipped to Manure from the Gunners Thumbs up to Simpson
I believe Simpson will play as there is no one else. van Persie and Adebayor are unavaliable and Bendtner just ran a full ninety minutes as a lone striker on Saturday. I like Rui Fonte technically but he’s not strong enough phsyically. One person I really do want to see is Coquelin against BPL opposition. He is definitely future Arsenal.