The last time Arsenal played Bolton Wanderers, Arsene Wenger was left frustrated

Arsenal will play Bolton Wanderer’s for the first time in over ten years on Wednesday in the EFL League Cup Third Round.

The last time the two played each other was 12 years ago during the 2011/12 Premier League season.

The Trotters put up a stubborn defence in February 2012 at the now Toughsheet Community Stadium as their efforts to frustrate Arsenal worked, resulting in a 0-0 draw to hand out the points equally.

The man in the dugout at the time was Arsene Wenger who was aiming to guide Arsenal to a top four finish for the season in pursuit of Champions League football.

On the other side of the dugout for Bolton was Mike Phelan who had played under Sir Alex Ferguson’s all conquering Manchester United squad during the early 1990s, which saw him collect one Premiership, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners Cup whilst at old Trafford.

After the frustrating draw which saw Arsenal struggle to capitalise on Theo Walcott and Van Persie’s chances, Wenger said to BBC Sport:”to play away from home you create six or seven clear cut chances, It’s difficult not to win but of course we have regrets, but the positive side is that we didn’t concede, we did fight and play our game as usual.”

Bolton would struggle to retain their status as a Premier League club come the end of the 2011/12 campaign, suffering relegation to the Championship. After finishing 18th and being demoted by one point, it witnessed their 13 season stay in the top-flight of English football come to an end.

On the other hand Wenger’s men would finish 19 points off top spot to last day of the season Premier League heroes Manchester City. However they still clawed their way back finishing third and gaining a 16th consecutive season of Champions League football.

Let’s hope Arsenal don’t slip up in shock manner again this Wednesday against currently League One Bolton, surely history won’t repeat itself!

Liam Harding


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4 Comments

  1. It was all part of the long, slow, general decline in the latter stage of Wenger’s era, although Arsenal with only a couple of wins has never had much success in the League Cup, unlike Utd, Liverpool and now City.

    The game against Bolton will be an interesting test of Arsenal’s squad strength/depth after a lot of changes in the summer. Under Arteta, so far, Arsenal has found it difficult to challenge on more than one trophy front and that’s been the EPL recently, of course.

    I really doubt that singular focus on the title will change now, particularly after two near misses, but a win against Bolton with a number of changes to the Arsenal team would be a good start, nevertheless.

  2. There’s a good chance of us playing a 16 year old keeper with our other three injured or already having represented another club in the competition.

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