Wenger backs Park for starting spot

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says Park Chu-Young is ready to challenge for a starting spot after scoring the winner against Bolton on Tuesday.

Fabrice Muamba gave Bolton the lead after the restart before Andrey Arshavin equalised and then turned provider for Arsenal’s second, teeing up Park for a superb curling finish to ensure the north London side’s progression to the quarter-finals.

And after the South Korean’s goalscoring performance, Wenger said it may not be long before the 26-year-old is given more first-team opportunities in the Premier League.

“For me, I’m very pleased with his performance,” Wenger said. “He showed intelligent link play and the quality of his goal was exceptional. His finishing is absolutely fantastic. For me he has shown tonight that he is a very good player.”

“He’s ready to play for league games, compared to the player who played in the first league game, where he was a bit inhibited; tonight he played with freedom and showed what a good player he is.”

The Frenchman was also delighted with the role of Arshavin, and whilst the Gunners’ boss admitted his frustration with the Russian at times, he was adamant that performances such as Tuesday’s justified his patience with the forward.

“Sometimes because he takes a big gamble on every ball he plays, he looks sometimes as though he loses some balls he shouldn’t lose, but if you look at the end of the game he always has a big impact of the game, tonight he scored and made an assist. He had a good performance tonight.”

The game also saw the return of centre-back Thomas Vermaelen, with the Belgian returning to the side as captain after a two-month lay-off.

Despite a positive performance from the 25-year-old, Wenger suggested he may not feature in Saturday’s clash with Chelsea after he felt a slight problem in his calves and was substituted.

“He did very well but picked up a calf problem, I hope it’s not too bad,” Wenger continued.

“He will be a bit short maybe for Saturday, I don’t know yet what I will do, we’ll have to test him tomorrow, it didn’t look too bad. He has been out for so long time, he had only one training session yesterday with the team.”

“We don’t think it’s a calf strain, just tight calves, because he has not played in months. He wanted to come off but I did not want to take him off. He was adamant he couldn’t go on so I hope it’s not too bad.”