Now that Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have returned to the Arsenal squad, most Gooners were assuming that Joel Campbell would be returned to the bench while Wenger picks his favourites again, but it would appear that Le Prof is thinking that Campbell could hold down a regular place in the First XI.
Wenger has already praised the Costa Rican for his performance last week, which prompted me to ask the question if Joel would keep Ramsey on the bench, but now Wenger has gone even further and suggested they could both play together.
“This season I didn’t want to loan him out because he has a genuine team attitude and he’s a fighter,” Le Prof said about Campbell. “What you want from him is to bring more offensively when he plays.
“Recently he has shown that when he is confident he can produce the offensive quality and also be reliable with his team attitude.
“He’s a fighter so that’s great for us. I smelt something with him that is very interesting. He’s creative. I could see that but the creativity is linked with the confidence. You open your eyes when you feel really free to take the initiative.
“That was a bit of his problem. At the end of the day you decide what’s best for the team. Ramsey is coming back of course, Alexis is also there but it’s good to move Ramsey inside during a game and give Campbell the opportunity as well.”
So after those two comments from Wenger, I am 95% sure that Campbell will be starting today with the Boss’s belief that he is now confident enough to cause the opposition big problems. Let us hope that his faith is justified…..