Is Wenger’s use of this Arsenal ace to prove a point?

When Wenger announced that Joel Campbell was starting tonight’s game away at Galatasaray it brought about a lot of responses from Arsenal fans that were based around “About bloody time!”.

Campbell’s, and fellow starter Lukas Podolski’s, lack of first-team action has been one of many ‘sticks’ used to beat Wenger during this tense and vitriolic season as there’s a real belief that the former Olympiacos loanee has something to offer and deserves the chance to show it.

Who knows, maybe he does and he won’t get a better chance to prove it then tonight in the cauldron of hate that is the Turk Telekom Arena – sidenote: it may well end up being his last start for the club.

I find Wenger’s use of the 22-year-old intriguing. If you look at Campbell’s minutes on the pitch so far, it reads as four minutes against Manchester City in the Community Shield, 16 minutes versus Everton, 21 in our 2-2 draw with Hull City, a 90th minute sub against Dortmund at the Emirates and the same for our recent defeat to Stoke City – you’ve also got his 71 minutes from the off against Southampton in the Capital One Cup.

Forget the minutes, that adds up as seven appearances for Arsenal so far – that number becomes eight tonight – and then you’d imagine he will make it into double figures before being loaned out in January.

10 appearances is a fair number to get a good feel for a player, understand what they’re about and whether they can offer something to you side, and that will no doubt be Wenger’s thinking when supporting his inevitable decision to allow Campbell to leave, given that Joel is yet to score or assist in those seven ‘appearances’.

When those appearances, so far, don’t even amount to 180 minutes of football – it doesn’t even reach 60 minutes if you take out his start against the Saints in our Capital One Cup exit (although, even in that game, Campbell was taken off after 71 minutes – another “look he can’t be trusted” point for Wenger’s armoury) – then it is safe to say Campbell, during a time when we need new ideas, hasn’t been given his chance.

For what it is worth, I don’t think Campbell is the answer and probably will end up just having a decent career at some mid-table La Liga side but it does make you wonder whether Le Professeur is playing a game with the forward and us, no?