Van Bronckhorst back for Gunners

Giovanni van Bronckhorst is set to make an emotional comeback for Arsenal against Sunderland in the Worthington Cup on Wednesday.

The Dutch international, who missed Arsenal’s Double-winning run-in after suffering a serious knee injury, is likely to be joined in the starting line-up by Frenchman Robert Pires as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger rings the changes to give his European campaigners a midweek breather.

The Gunners ended their four-match losing sequence against Fulham on Sunday with a 1-0 triumph courtesy of a freak own goal from Fulham’s Steve Marlet.

Now they have the double boost of seeing midfielder Van Bronckhorst start a match for the first time in nine months and Pires for the first time in more than seven.

Pires, still striving for match fitness after undergoing a cruciate operation on a knee last May which kept him out of the World Cup, has already been used as a substitute over the past fortnight by Wenger.

The return of van Bronckhorst, signed from Rangers in the summer of 2001, comes after an even lengthier recuperation from a damaged cruciate ligament sustained in Arsenal’s match against Fulham last February.

“Van Bronckhorst will play against Sunderland on Wednesday because I want to rest some of my players,” said Wenger. “He had a different operation from Pires and it has taken him six weeks longer to recuperate.

“It will help to have everyone back with the second phase of the Champions League coming up. You have to rotate your players these days or they will get tired.”

There is no doubt 27-year-old Van Bronckhorst, a firm favourite at Highbury and the man to whom Thierry Henry dedicated one of his goals last season with a T-shirt celebration proclaiming ’Gio, this one’s for you’, will give extra cover to a midfield which has been showing signs of wear and tear.

Captain Patrick Vieira admitted last month that he was so tired he was barely able to walk following one match for the French national team, though he has just enjoyed an enforced rest after his two-match ban for using insulting language to referee Andy D’Urso.

He completed that suspension with Sunday’s encounter against Fulham but it is likely he will be saved for Arsenal’s match against Newcastle at the weekend, a match described by Wenger as “massive”.

With Arsenal second in the Barclaycard Premiership, four points behind Liverpool, it is a week in which Wenger will be looking for his men to show more of the spirit they demonstrated in a battling, if never entirely convincing, victory over Fulham – a triumph which ended a four-match losing sequence.

“If you lose four you have to be concerned,” admitted Wenger. “We’re not used to it and it’s how the team responds that counts. The response was there.

“We had to dig deeper and that’s what we have done. This team will fight for the future. I feel our luck has turned.

“Confidence is something that is very fragile. Things went against us against Dortmund and Blackburn. I was looking for the players to change things round and they have done that.”

With Dennis Bergkamp also having made his first start in seven games after suffering an Achilles tendon injury and Freddie Ljungberg growing in strength after his lengthy lay-off Wenger is hoping Arsenal can resume the form which saw them unbeaten in seven months before their recent problems.

That, however, is unlikely until Wenger sorts out the communication problems in defence where Frenchman Pascal Cygan’s lack of English and Sol Campbell’s reticence to take on the leadership role vacated by the retired Tony Adams are breeding uncertainty.