Campbell eyes Cup comeback

Sol Campbell will tonight launch his bid to play a part in the remainder of Arsenal's season.

Campbell, who watched from the sidelines on Saturday as Arsenal regained second spot with a 4-1 win against Norwich, has started only 19 matches this season for his club because of an Achilles problem and later an ankle ligament injury.

He plays for the first time since the start of February at Barnet tonight in a reserve match and has targeted the FA Cup semi-final against Blackburn in Cardiff on 16 February for a return to first-team action.

He also wants to show England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson that he is the man to partner Rio Ferdinand at international level. While his injury problems have restricted to him to just two appearances in England's nine matches this season - six World Cup qualifiers and three friendlies - Chelsea's John Terry has edged above him in the pecking order.

Manager Arsene Wenger is keen that Campbell's England colleague Ashley Cole will extend his stay at Arsenal and believes that despite recent controversies surrounding the left-back - including a Premier League charge in the Chelsea tapping up controversy - the player wants to stay.

Wenger has had private talks with Cole, who was jeered by a minority of the Highbury crowd during the win over Norwich, and said: "I would like to keep private what we talked about but I am convinced Ashley wants to stay. I want him to stay and so does the board. We all want to keep him. Chelsea's spending power has made it difficult for everybody, not just Arsenal. What they spend is not linked to income. The competition, wages-wise, is artificial."

A hat-trick from Thierry Henry took the French star to within four goals of Ian Wright's record of 185 for the club and Wenger said: "He cares about the record, don't worry about that!"