Team news and manager quotes ahead of Arsenal's Carling Cup fourth-round clash at home to Bolton.

TEAM NEWS:

Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen could make his comeback from a two-month Achilles injury layoff. With one eye on Saturday's derby at Chelsea, manager Arsene Wenger is likely to rest the likes of Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Robin van Persie, and give starts to the fringe players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Francis Coquelin, Park Chu-Young and Emmanuel Frimpong.

Bolton Wanderers needed a break after their six defeats but once again Gary Cahill will be joining the England squad ahead of next Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier when England travel to Montenegro. If he takes his place in England's defence it will earn him his 6th cap.

Recently not only did Cahill play his part in two successive clean sheets for England he scored one of the three goals against Bulgaria.

Bolton Wanderers needed a break after their six defeats but once again Gary Cahill will be joining the England squad ahead of next Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier when England travel to Montenegro. If he takes his place in England's defence it will earn him his 6th cap.

Recently not only did Cahill play his part in two successive clean sheets for England he scored one of the three goals against Bulgaria.

The ‘next big thing' is no more than a marketing term at Chelsea for a product that, more often than not, fails to live up to its early promise. You may argue that Chelsea would be nothing without John Terry breaking through their youth ranks, but essentially he is the only player to do so [...] Related posts:

1. Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku or Fernando Torres Who Will Lead The Chelsea Attack?

League Cup, Third Round Major changes for BWFC did the trick

• Sunday, September 20, 2011
• Venue: Villa Park
• Attendance: 22,261
• Referee: Darren Deadman

• Gary Cahill [39]
• Chris Eagles [54]
• Gael Kakuta [77]
• Barry Bannan [86]

Bolton Wanderers book their place into the fourth round of the League Cup with a pleasing win away from home.

Bolton come to Villa Park for the 3rd round of the Carling Cup, Alex McLeish has fielded a very strong side and Owen Coyle is able to hand Stuart Holden his first appearance since his knee injury at the tail end of last season.

Aston Villa Bolton 1 Shay Given 1 Adam Bogdan 2 Alan Hutton 2 Gretar Rafn Steinsson 5 Richard Dunne 5 Gary Cahill 6 James Collins 31 David Wheater 3 Stephen Warnock 11 Ricardo Gardner 19 Stiliyan Petrov 7 Chris Eagles 25 Barry Bannan 6 Fabrice Muamba 7 Stephen Ireland 8 Stuart Holden 12 Marc Albrighton 21 Darren Pratley 14 Nathan Delfouneso 28 Gael Kakuta 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 24 David Ngog Subs Subs 22 Brad Guzan 22 Jussi Jaaskelainen 23 Habib Beye 4 Paul Robinson 34 Shane Lowry 20 Robbie Blake 16 Fabian Delph 16 Mark Davies 38 Gary Gardner 10 Martin Petrov 10 Charles N'Zogbia 14 Kevin Davies
Graham Burke 9 Tuncay Sanli League Cup 3rd Round Ties (K.

Gael Kakuta has been speaking for the first time since his six-month loan move to Bolton was made official on transfer deadline day. The young Frechman is saying all the right things, despite the rags' best attempts to skew it.

Make or break?

This is a pivotal season for Kakuta.

On a day when many managers strive to negotiate the ideal transfer fee for their ideal targets, there is often a realization that the ideal deal might not be struck after all.

Fortunately for these managers, not all is lost when they fail to agree a fee for someone they really want to bring to their clubs.

Phew! It was that time again, and as per usual things were manic. We at In The Stands struggled to keep up with all the kerfuffle and constant will-he-wont-he debacles. However, after much journalistic endeavours, we have managed to finally pin down the most significant transfers on a thoroughly exciting last day of the transfer window.

David Ngog and Gael Kakuta move to Bolton

Bolton complete the signing of Liverpool striker David Ngog on a three-year contract, while Chelsea winger Gael Kakuta joins on loan until 1 January.

View the full story here: BBC

A news article on 2011-08-31 21:32:43 from: BBC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Official: Bolton Wanderer's complete permanent signing of David Ngog and loan deal for Gael Kakuta

Liverpool striker completes switch to Reebok stadium on a three-year contract, whilst Chelsea midfielder also joins Owen Coyle's side on a six-month loan move

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-08-31 20:52:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

The reserves literally just wrapped a 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Stamford Bridge. Somewhat unlucky, too. It was a solid performance from the guys, Mellis with the goal. Anyway.

At halftime, sporting director Michael Emenalo spoke to ChelseaTV. He offered some good insight into what to expect from some of our high-profile youth players that are currently on the fringes of the first team.

México supo reaccionar al encarar un marcador en contra y venció el sábado 3-1 a Francia para quedarse con el tercer lugar del Mundial Sub20.

Ulises Dávila, Jorge Enríquez y Edson Rivera convirtieron los goles de México, que con el tercer puesto completó su segunda mejor actuación en la historia de estos torneos.

Luka Modric is rumoured to have submitted a second written transfer request to Tottenham.
My feeling on the situation is that the player signed a contract for Tottenham and thus agreed to fulfull his end of that contract, which obliges him to play for Tottenham for the duration of that contract.

A man in a difficult position, Carlo Ancelotti
Carlo Ancelotti was a made man. He sat at the top of the Premier League having seen his side score more than 100 goals in a season – the first time since the great Spurs side of the 60's –, a £9 million contract in the bag, and the promise of a serious assault on the Champions League in the 2010/11 season.

Danny breathes life into Bolton. A sign of what's to come?

The fire.

If you missed it, Daniel Sturridge made one hell of an impact today on his debut for Bolton. So did Gael Kakuta at Fulham for that matter.

Nevertheless, it was Sturridge who stole the headlines, scoring the winner two minutes into added time for Wanderers in a cagey 1-0 win at home to Wolves.

Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images EuropeChelsea have allowed Gael Kakuta and Patrick van Aanholt to leave Stamford Bridge, albeit on a loan deal. Kakuta will be joining Fulham till the end of the season, while Patrick van Aanholt will be joining Sven Goran Eriksson and Leicester City also till the end of the season.

Well, we're still waiting to get the confirmation on the arrival of David Luiz, but two of our youngsters have been on the move in search of some consistent first-team football.

After yesterday's rumors that Gael Kakuta was down the visiting our neighbors down the road for a nice lunchtime medical, Chelsea have confirmed today that our French youngster has completed a loan move with Fulham until the end of the season.

By Chris Wright

Just a quickie to let y'all know that Fulham have confirmed Chelsea tyro Gael Kakuta has indeed joined the club on loan until the end of the season, after the 19-year-old successfully passed a medical at the Cottage yesterday evening.

Kakuta has only started five games since Chelsea forcibly wrenched him from Lens' youth set-up 18 months ago (though the France U20′s winger did sign a new four-and-a-half year deal at Stamford Bridge last month), and it seems that Carlo Ancelotti is keen for him to stockpile his first-team experience elsewhere for the time being.

Didier Drogba is featured in an interview here speaking once again of Chelsea's form and the need to win consecutive games first before thinking of a push for the Premier League title.
He said:

Instead of thinking about winning the title, we should think about winning two consecutive games.

No Keano? That blows.

Oh Eidur, how I miss thee

Who: Ipswich Town
What: FA Cup, third round
Where: Stamford Bridge (41,841)
When: 9 January, 3pm local time (10am EST)
How: By online steam as far as I can tell

Why: Because this tie actually represents more than just another must-win game.

Arsenal are worried about Nicklas Bendtner being the subject of tapping-up by Champions League finalists Bayern Munich.

It is believed that Bayern, who have admitted their interest in Bendtner on record publicly recently, made contact with Nicklas Bendtner's representatives (including his father) to make their interest known and gave details as to the terms that would be offered by the Germans.

The year 2010 will always be remembered as the year that Chelsea won their first ever historic double!. It was a remarkable achievement in Carlo Ancelotti's first season as our manager. Chelsea were fantastic and played the kind of football that Roman Abramovich had craved for a long time.
We have had our ups and downs, have some established names leave the club, and made a signing.