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TEAM: Preferred Arsenal Starting XI For FA Cup Final – Wilshere OUT

By on May 15, 2014

The big one is almost upon us as Arsenal are preparing to take on Hull City in the final of the FA Cup this Saturday evening. Here is the team I’d like to see start the match.

Goalkeeper: This is a contentious issue as Lukasz Fabianski has started in every previous round of the cup, but Wojciech Szczesny is our number one and I think we should be playing our strongest eleven for this game. Arsene has given little away over what he’ll decide to do but I hope the boss goes for Szczesny.

Defence: This is a far easier decision for me. Our first choice back four should all be fit after Kieran Gibbs returned from injury to play against Norwich last weekend. Thomas Vermaelen is a fitness doubt but he’s highly unlikely to start anyway. Sagna looks like he’s leaving in the summer and I hope he signs off with the trophy he deserves.

Midfield: Jack Wilshere got 30 minutes under his belt last weekend but he’s not fit enough to start in a cup final just yet, so I’d stick with Arteta and Ramsey in midfield. Mikel is a different player when he has Rambo next to him as he doesn’t have to do as much running as the Welshman covers every blade of grass, so these two should be able to boss the middle of the park.

Attack: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is facing a race against time to be passed fit but I don’t think we’ll see him in the starting line-up in any case. Santi Cazorla was rested last week so he should return alongside Mesut Ozil, while Lukas Podolski has been a regular in recent weeks and deserves to keep his place.

Striker: Another area where Arsene has a decision to make. Yaya Sanogo has been picked in the previous rounds but it would be a big risk to play him in the final. I’d certainly go with the more experienced Giroud – who is actually in some excellent form of late.

Here’s my team:

So the team is pretty obvious apart from the two contentious areas; goalkeeper and striker. It’s difficult to predict what Arsene will do and it wouldn’t surprise me if he stuck to his guns and started Fabianski and Sanogo. After all, he’s done it against Liverpool, Everton and in the semi final.

In these situations we can turn to the bookmakers to see what they think, as they rarely get it wrong. Currently, the bookies have Fabianski as the odss-on favourite to start in goal, but interestingly Giroud appears to be the favourite to start up front. The Frenchman is the odds-on favourite to score first at 7/2, while Sanogo – who is yet to score his first goal for the club – is at 11/2. The odds do suggest that the bookies aren’t sure which striker will start, so if you are going to take a punt on the first goalscorer this weekend it’s probably best you take advantage of free bet offers and money back guarantees as there is no certainty who will be leading the line on Saturday.

However, irrespective of who starts in attack, we should have more than enough to beat Hull. Steve Bruce will set his stall out and look to keep the score at 0-0 for as long as possible and hope to steal a goal on the break or from a set piece.

Our defence has been excellent against ‘lower level’ opposition this season so as long as we focus at the job in hand, don’t get complacent and take our chances, we should end our much talked about trophy drought.

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