Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal Preview

Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal
Barclays Premiership
Sat, Nov 25, 2006, 5.15pm


Arsenal tries to put aside its recent misery at The Reebok Stadium on Saturday when it squares off against Bolton trying to keep sight of the Premiership frontrunners.



The Gunners have not won at Bolton since a 2-0 victory April 29, 2002, on goals by Freddie Ljungberg and Sylvain Wiltord en route to their last Premiership title. The last two matches have seen the Wanderers emerge with 1-0 victories on both occasions during the season as well as an FA Cup victory by the same margin.

Arsene Wenger's squad enters this match in fourth place with 22 points through 12 matches, but Arsenal is 12 points behind first-place Manchester United and nine in back of reigning two-time champion Chelsea, who are playing each other in a titanic clash at Old Trafford.

While the Gunners played Newcastle to a disappointing 1-1 draw at home last weekend, Wenger is hoping the momentum of Arsenal's 3-1 Champions League win Tuesday over Hamburg will provide some needed confidence.

"I feel we showed against Hamburg great character, great spirit.

"We want to fight for the Premiership championship,'' Wenger said. "We have dropped too many points against the so called smaller teams but the team is young and they have learned from those games.''

It is uncertain if Wenger will include teenager Theo Walcott in his first 11 after his brilliant performance as a reserve Tuesday. Walcott sent pinpoint crosses that set up goals by Emmanuel Eboue and Julio Baptista that propeled Arsenal to three points.

"Theo at the moment is in a kind of mental state where he knows he can affect the game when he comes on, and you know he has the physical ingredients when the game needs some pace,'' Wenger said.

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce is hoping his team can use the psychological advantage of its recent home mastery of the Gunners to its advantage and pass them in the standings. The Wanderers have scored just two goals in their last five matches and have slipped to sixth in the Premiership, one point behind Arsenal and Aston Villa.

Bolton has just one point from its last four domestic matches and is coming off a 1-0 defeat last Saturday at Everton. Despite strikers El-Hadji Diouf and Nicolas Anelka having quality scoring chances, the Wanderers were unable to find the back of the net.

Allardyce also quashed recent speculation that Anelka would sign with Lyon during the January transfer window after the French team's president publicly said he wanted to sign the mercurial French striker.

"If the comments made by the Lyon president are true, then he is out of order,'' Allardyce told the team's Web site. "We have had no dialogue with Lyon or any other club for that matter. Nicolas is a quality player and he is going nowhere.''

Wanderers will have the services of captain Kevin Nolan, who missed last week's match due to his fiancee giving birth to the couple's first child, Jasmine Elizabeth.

[Source from : sportsillustrated.cnn.com]