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Campbell can cope with Rooney threat: Wenger

LONDON COLNEY, England (AFP) - Arsene Wenger insists Sol Campbell can cope with the challenge of facing in-form Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney in Sunday's crucial showdown at the Emirates Stadium.

Wenger will hand Campbell his first Premier League start since rejoining the Gunners if Belgian centre-back Thomas Vermaelen is unable to recover from the knee injury that forced him off at Aston Villa on Wednesday.

Campbell, who left Arsenal for Portsmouth in 2006, is on stand-by to replace Vermaelen in Arsenal's most important game of the season even though the ex-England international has made only three appearances all season.

The 35-year-old spent four months out of the game after quitting Notts County. He eventually returned to Arsenal following a lengthy period training with his old team and made his second debut in last weekend's FA Cup defeat at Stoke before coming on as a substitute against Villa.

Now Campbell faces the sternest test of his top-level comeback as he prepares to go head to head with England forward Rooney, who has scored 13 goals in his last 13 appearances for United.

Wenger has no doubts that Campbell's experience will enable him to rise to the challenge.

"Sol can cope with Rooney. He is ready if he has recovered well. I have to assess him but normally he will play if Vermaelen doesn't play," Wenger said on Friday.

"He has experience and he likes the big games. He can turn up if needed and experience helps in these kind of games.

"It was certainly not expected a few months ago when he signed for Notts County that he would be playing a game like this.

"That shows you how quick football is and I believe that he has worked very hard and credit to him, everyday he was motivated to push himself and he is quite fit."

While Wenger acknowledges Rooney will pose a substantial threat for United, he refuses to focus solely on shutting out the striker.

"I don't think they are over-reliant on Rooney, they changed their system a little bit the other day against Manchester City and didn't play with two strikers," Wenger said.

"They played with only Rooney up front and then of course he becomes the focal point of the game. But they have plenty of players, for example, in the game on Wednesday, (Ryan) Giggs was as well very influential.

"Rooney was at the end of things but Giggs created a lot of things in the game."

Wenger hopes Vermaelen could be back in a week if scans show he has not suffered a fracture, but the Arsenal boss will definitely be without Croatia striker Eduardo, who sustained a hamstring problem at Villa, and Nicklas Bendtner could deputise.

Those injuries couldn't have come at a worse time for Wenger as he tries to guide his team through a period that will define Arsenal's season.

The Gunners are two points behind leaders Chelsea and one point behind United. With tough games against Chelsea and Liverpool coming up next, Wenger knows a victory on Sunday would be a major boost to morale at such a pivotal point in the campaign.

"I believe that no matter what happens we will still be in a position where we will have a chance after these games, but it can put us in a very strong position and that is what we want," Wenger said.

"We know that to be successful in this period we have to be more of a team than the other teams. We have to think how strong and how much solidarity it takes to get through a period like that. That is what we want to show on Sunday.

"We love being in the race. Of course it was our dream to be in this position in this period of time."

Although Alex Ferguson has had the better of his duels with Wenger during their 14 years competing for supremacy in England, the French coach still relishes clashes with United more than any other contest.

"I look forward to it because it is a match which always promises good football," Wenger said.

"Manchester United and Arsenal have had some tough games, and sometimes they were not easy on the physical side, but both teams always tried to play.

"It was very rarely a boring game, you always thought at the start it would be a great football game, and so you love that.

"It is always one of the games of the season. We are really up for it. We are on a good run. We have good momentum and we want to continue that."