I think it might be roll the dice time, wherever the dice lands there will be plenty of opportunity to rage at the manager for said decision. Rest Ramsey and Chamberlain while failing to get a result could lead to fingers pointed at taking the opposition lightly. I mean ‘They are professional footballers, they should be able to handle a game twice a week’

Arsenal can put FA cup thoughts to the back of the mind once again and instead refocus on the meat and veg of domestic football, the Premier League.

However Arsene Wenger’s thoughts on the matter are unlikely to be as straight forward as they should be as he needs to evaluate which of his players are less on their last legs than his team mate.

An injury stricken squad having just played 120 minutes plus penalty shoot outs isn’t ideal preparation for a game only a few days later.

I think it might be roll the dice time for some of our players, wherever the dice lands there will be plenty of opportunity to rage at the manager for his decisions. Rest Ramsey and Chamberlain while failing to get a result could lead to fingers pointed at taking the opposition lightly. I mean ‘They are professional footballers, they should be able to handle a game twice a week’ after all.

The flip side of that is to play Chamberlain or Ramsey for one of both players to suffer an injury and the red zone experts will be out in force.

It doesn’t help that Mathieu Flamini who has often chopped and changed when games come thick and fast will not be able to replace Mikel Arteta due to suspension. Özil is back in training this week but is unlikely to be ready for a start but I wonder if Arsene will gamble on a place on the bench for him depending on how he responds in training but that is just speculation on my part.

Even our third/fourth choice wide attacking player Serge Gnabry is not able to capitalise on a rare outing because of his own injury issue.

So basically we do not have much room to maneuver, and this makes me worry just a little. Not only because of the possibility of further injuries but I can’t see us playing in anything higher than 3rd gear at any point in the game due to fatigue.

West Ham will come to frustrate us and I regret laughing at Chelsea earlier on in the season when West Ham dug out a 0-0 at Stamford Bridge. We will need to play at a high tempo to break them down and I am not sure our tired legs will be capable of doing so, even less so given our lack of spontaneity/confidence at Wembley.

I do expect those who are fresh to come into the team. The likes of Szczesny, Jenkinson, Kallstrom, Rosicky, Koscielny and Giroud. The rest of the team will have to grin and bear it I guess. Now I write that it does look like we have half a team to come in. Which is better than I thought but then comes the question of fluency.

Szczesny
Jenkinson Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Arteta Kallstrom
Rosicky
Cazorla Giroud Podolski

If that is the starting team, I would worry about the two players at the base of midfield when we don’t have the ball, well assuming we push up the pitch. Both players are relatively slow so it wouldn’t be difficult to run beyond them on the counter attack. Given that West Ham are likely to play deep, I’m not sure there will be a great deal we can do about that.

On the ball those two would give us good distribution from deep plus I am looking forward to seeing Kimmy in action should he start. I’d imagine he would.

I don’t do match predictions anymore because well, it is rather tricky to predict the future but I’d say this one has 1-0 or 1-1 written all over it. While it will be difficult watching I’d snatch your hand off for the former. You know exactly how West Ham are going to play. Let us have the ball in wide areas, flood the middle and hit balls to Carroll. Oh how I can’t wait.

Goodness, just looking at that team again and it really lacks pace and movement. I am scaring myself now. Lukas Podolski has had a few good moments against the Hammers so I hope that continues tonight.

I haven’t been able to post any post match Q&A’s for the last two games as I missed the Everton game and was at the Semi final so I shall try and get that sorted this evening as long as I can find a few interested parties.

Enjoy the game Gooners.