Arsenal Preview

By Mark Heys
November 24 2006

Bolton Wanderers hope to continue their recent good home form against Arsenal when the two sides go head to head with one another at the Reebok Stadium tommorow evening.

Arsene Wenger's side have failed to secure a Premiership win at the Reebok in over four years of trying with the Wanderers achieving two wins and a draw from the last three league meetings in South Lancashire.

In fact even going back to the days at the old Burnden Park ground the Londoners have found it hard when travelling up to Bolton so Sam Allardyce will be eager for that sequence of events to continue, not least to stop a bad run of form which has seen his side pick up just one point from a possible twelve over the last few matches.

Arsenal are on a good run of form of late and are going well both in the league and cup competitions. Their win in the Champions League against Hamburg was their third in the last fortnight.

Bolton are highly likely to recall their influential captain Kevin Nolan for this game after he missed last weekend's defeat at Everton due to the birth of his first child.

Utility man Quinton Fortune was on the bench at Goodison Park after recovering from a recent injury but the game has come to soon for Ricardo Gardner despite the fact that the Jamaican star completed ninety minutes in the reserve team win over Manchester City in midweek.

Ex-Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka will resume his place in the Bolton forward line alongside Kevin Davies and El-Hadji Diouf as he looks to get off the mark in the Premiership for the first time since his £8 million move from Fenerbache in August.

Arsenal will be without William Gallas (thigh) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) so there could be places in the first eleven for Brazilian World Cup winner Gilberto Silva and England prodigy Theo Walcott.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

30/10/1995 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (McGinlay) ARSENAL 0

05/05/1996 ARSENAL 2(Platt, Bergkamp) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Todd)

13/09/1997 ARSENAL 4 (Wright 3, Parlour) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Thompson)

31/03/1998 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 ARSENAL 1 (Wreh)

22/09/2001 ARSENAL 1 (Jeffers) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Ricketts)

29/04/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 ARSENAL 2 (Ljungberg, Wiltord)

21/09/2002 ARSENAL 2 (Henry, Kanu) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Farrelly)

26/04/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Djorkaeff, Keown (OG)) ARSENAL 2 (Wiltord, Pires)

20/12/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Pedersen) ARSENAL 1 (Pires)

20/03/2004 ARSENAL 2 (Pires, Bergkamp) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Campo)

18/09/2004 ARSENAL 2 (Henry, Pires) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Jaidi, Pedersen)

15/01/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Giannakopoulos) ARSENAL 0

03/12/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Faye, Giannakopoulos) ARSENAL 0

11/02/2006 ARSENAL 1 (Gilberto Silva) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 14

Won: 3

Drawn: 5

Lost: 6

CONNECTIONS

Nicolas Anelka, George Hunt, David Jack, Brian Kidd, Isaiah Rankin.

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED THE GUNNERS

Bruce Rioch managed both Bolton and Arsenal. His last game in charge at Highbury came in May 1996 when facing the Wanderers who had already been relegated back to the First Division.

Ian Wright broke Cliff Bastin's Arsenal goalscoring record when these two teams met in September 1997. This record has since been eclipsed by Thierry Henry in 2005.

In September 2002 Gareth Farrelly scored his only Premiership goal for Bolton away at Arsenal. It was a memorable one because it was never actually meant to be a shot on goal.

The most memorable head to head between these two sides came in April 2003 when in a top vs bottom clash. Arsenal looked to challenge Manchester United for the Premiership title whilst Bolton needed points to stave off relegation. At two down Bolton brought the scores back to 2-2 courtesy of a Youri Djorkaeff chip and an own goal by Martin Keown

Senegal midfielder Abdoulaye Faye headed home his first goal for Bolton against Arsenal in December 2005. The former Lens man has been likened to ex-Gunners captain Patrick Vieira who left London for Italy eighteen months ago.

Kevin Nolan scored Bolton's last ever goal at Highbury in February this year but it wasn't a matchwinner as Gilberto Silva popped up with an injury time equaliser for Arsenal