It has been a while since Arsene Wenger has had the strength in depth to choose from the Arsenal squad that he has now. And with the injury situation at the club as good as it has been for many a year, the boss is perhaps under less pressure than usual when it comes to selecting his starting line up to face Aston Villa at Wembley.
So I wonder if there could be a little bit of sentiment in the Frenchman’s selection. Because there are quite a few members of the current Arsenal squad who will be desperate to feature in the FA cup final this season for various reasons.
Both Nacho Monreal and Mathieu Flamini have already spoken about what it was like to have to sit and watch from the bench as we overcame a two goal deficit to lift the trophy after extra time last May. Our Spanish left back’s claim in an Arsenal.com report that Arsenal’s success is all that matters does not really hice the fact that he is desperate to start.
Wojciech Szczesny was also on the bench that day despite being the number one at the time so no doubt he will be hoping that Wenger sticks with that same policy this year, while Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were not even subs due to their respective injury problems.
Then you have the likes of Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta who did feature last year but have had disappointing seasons with little time on the pitch this time and would surely love to end it on a high and on the pitch.
Do you think the boss can afford any sentiment on Saturday or should he be ruthless and only pick the players that will give us the very best chance of winning?