Carling Cup- Burnley v Arsenal- Silvestre to start, Bendtner in for Simpson

Arsenal travel to Turf Moor to take on Burnley tomorrow looking to progress to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup. Comprehensive home victories over Sheffield United and Wigan have caused the whole world to take notice of the promising youngsters, but tomorrow they face a different task away to a Championship side who knocked Chelsea out of the competition in the last round.

In team news, Johan Djourou has been ruled out because of a hip problem he sustained at Stamford Bridge and will be replaced by Mikael Silvestre.

When asked about his team selection for tomorrow’s tie, manager Arsene Wenger replied.

“The players who were on the bench at Chelsea will be involved but those who started will not.

“That means Silvestre will play and so will Fabianski of course. We have some other first-team players [that] will play too – Vela and Bendtner.”

That is likely to mean that Jay Simpson drops to the bench whilst Mark Randall is struggling with a back problem and will face a late fitness test.

Predicted team:

———————Fabianski——————–

—Hoyte—-Silvestre—————Song—Gibbs—–

–Wilshere—Ramsey—————Randall–Merida—-

———–Bendtner—————Vela————-

subs: Mannone, Bischoff, Coquelin, Lansbury, Frimpong, Simpson, Emmanuel-Thomas.

Burnley are likely to field their strongest possible side including the likes of Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles, although Wade Elliot is set to miss out through injury.

Other Carling Cup Quarter-final ties:

(7.45pm unless stated)

Stoke v Derby (Tue)

Man.Utd v Blackburn (Wed, 8pm)

Watford v Tottenham (Wed)

Finally, Jeorge Bird’s Arsenal Youth is one year old today. Thank you to everybody for their support over the past 12 months.