Perez then swiftly followed up his maiden strike to ensure that Arsenal progressed to the fourth round in comfortable fashion, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain completing the win in stoppage-time.
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Granit Xhaka may feature from the off having not started since the win at Watford last month while Olivier Giroud (toe), who missed the Premier League win at Hull over the weekend, could be back in contention.
Perez, 27, netted his first goal for the club from the penalty spot in the second half, before adding a second 11 minutes later with a determined effort being rewarded.
Asked for his thoughts on Perez, Wenger replied: “The second goal has technical quality and desire, determination and fighting spirit”.
“The part he played in the Oxlade-Chamberlain goal showed that he is an intelligent player”.
“We got there in the end but the game was tough, Nottingham Forest played with full commitment”, Wenger explained.
Arsenal’s reserve side lost 5-0 to Everton in Premier League 2 on Monday night (19 September) and it was mainly due to seven of the regular players being promoted to first-team duty for the EFL Cup clash.
This time around a year ago, Arsenal took on Sheffield Wednesday and eventually succumbed to an embarrassing 3-0 loss.
Bendtner then showed both sides of the character which has typified his career by catching Xhaka with a late foul and receiving a needless yellow card, before nearly scoring his first Forest goal by flashing a fierce right-footed shot narrowly wide.
“We’ve seen we can play some good football but we have to be stronger”. Our combinations worked well and we played at a high pace.
“We had sharp movement, and great mobility in the team”.
Forest: We can expect Bendtner to start, also Lichaj, Lansbury may start.
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“We had a hard game but we did stick together and played like a real team who wants to qualify and overall our technical superiority allowed us to make the difference in the second half”.
