Gervinho Blames Wenger for his Arsenal Nightmare

Roma forward Gervinho has spoken for the first time about his nightmare spell at Arsenal and has criticised former boss Arsene Wenger for failing to have faith in his ability.

The 26 year old moved to the Emirates in the summer of 2010 for a fee of £10.8m having helped Lille win the Ligue 1 title in the previous campaign. In just two seasons he had scored 36 goals for the French club and was expected to be a major player for Arsenal for many years to come.

However, after scoring just four league goals in his debut season with the north London club he found his opportunities severely limited as Wenger preferred to use Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski in the wide positions.

Having failed to make a significant impact Gervinho was keen to make the move to Roma where he has been reunited with former boss Rudi Garcia who brought the best out of him when the pair worked together at Lille.

The Ivory Coast international will hope to gain more regular action at the Italian side and has revealed the reasons he felt his time at Arsenal was anything but a success.

"I was not getting much time on the pitch and was in need of this time to improve and play my best football," Gervinho told The Sun. "Wenger was not prepared to give it to me.

"Also my position on the wing was not what I was expecting and I wasn't happy with it."

Quizzed on his relationship with Wenger, Gervinho added: "It would have helped had he shown more confidence in me."

Despite struggling to make a significant impact at Arsenal Gervinho has remained an important figure for his country and is expected to play a major role for Roma as they look to compete for the Serie A title.

He has featured in Roma's first two league games this season which have resulted in Garcia's side picking up maximum points and scoring five goals without response.