Arsenal v Liverpool | CC

by **Quiver** Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:47 am

Arsenal v Liverpool

Carling Cup

Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 19:45

by **Quiver** Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:47 am

Samir Nasri and Lukasz Fabianski will make their first appearances of the season in the Carling Cup Fourth Round tie with Liverpool on Wednesday but Jack Wilshere will be missing.

The return of the French midfielder (broken leg) and Polish keeper (knee) was widely expected after they came through a Reserve game at Wolves last week. However, the loss of Wilshere (ankle) is a blow. The 17-year-old has been one of Arsenal's shining stars in this competition for the past couple of seasons.

Armand Traore (groin) is also missing but Wenger will be fielding a relatively experienced side. He intends to use the game to give Eduardo (thigh) and Nicklas Bendtner (groin) a start. Both came off the bench against West Ham on Sunday but, before that, they had missed a few games with injury.

"Nasri comes back but Traore, who played in the last round is out," said Wenger. "He has a groin problem.

"Fabianski will get a game too, he will start. But Jack had a knock on his ankle and will be out unfortunately. It is a question of days but we made a trial with him on Sunday and we are resigned to the fact he will be just too short to play.

"Eduardo and Bendtner will be back. But we still have Rosicky, Denilson and Walcott out."

by **Quiver** Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:54 am

Rafael Benitez has confirmed Alberto Aquilani will make his senior debut for Liverpool against Arsenal in the fourth round of the League Cup tomorrow evening. The Italian featured in a 15-minute cameo for the Reds' reserves in a 2-0 win against Sunderland last week.

"He is improving his fitness, so he's in the squad," Benitez told The Times. "He cannot start at this moment but he will be there and maybe we can give him some minutes. If it's possible, we will try to use him."

The Liverpool manager intimated that the former AS Roma star has already shown his ability in training sessions for the Reds.

"We can see in every training session that he has quality, game intelligence and good movements," he said. "He is a different kind of player for us."

Benitez hinted that he may use the Italian in a more advanced role than first thought.

"We talk about using Steven Gerrard deeper sometimes, but maybe in Aquilani we have a player who can play there and pass the ball really well in the final third."