Arsene Wenger has praised Cesc Fàbregas for curbing his petulant streak, one year after a moment of insolence directed at opponents whom Arsenal host in the Barclays Premier League this evening. As he walked off the pitch after Arsenal’s goalless draw with Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup last February, Fàbregas told Mark Hughes that he could not believe that the Blackburn manager had played for Barcelona because “that wasn’t Barcelona football”. Hughes was furious and Fàbregas apologised.

“He’s committed. You like your players to have a winning attitude,” the Arsenal manager said. “You know sometimes it can go a bit [awry], but Cesc is behaving well this year. He got to a stage where for five or six months he went the wrong way, but he has corrected it without any special management.

“We had that problem with Patrick Vieira for a while and he improved his attitude. Talented and great players go home and think, ‘What did I do right today, what did I do wrong today?’ ” Fresh from his start for England last week, David Bentley returns to London to face his former club. Bentley, a former Arsenal trainee, made one league start under Wenger and signed for Blackburn in January 2006. “For me he was always more a central player than a wide player,” Wenger said. “Why? Because he's not especially pacy. I had Dennis Bergkamp, so he [Bentley] said: ‘I will not get in front of Bergkamp so I go.’ ”