Arsene Wenger has had a lot of juggling to do as he prepared Arsenal for the FA cup 5th round replay at Hull this evening. With fitness and injury concerns as well as balancing the priorities of a third Wembley win on the bounce against the Premier League title challenge, I would not have liked to be in the Frenchman’s place.
From the Arsenal and Hull starting line ups it is clear that Steve Bruce expects his team to be under a lot of pressure as he has gone with a physical and somewhat defensive XI with players like Powell, Huddlestone and Diame and their top scorer of the season Abel Hernandez on the bench.
And even though Arsene Wenger has rested a few big players like Ramsey, Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, the Arsenal team still looks strong and has plenty of attacking flair, with the pace of Walcott, the power of Giroud and the technical ability and energy of Campbell with the very impressive young Alex Iwobi behind them.
The boss has chosen to rest Hector Bellerin entirely and so Chambers comes in at right back and Gibbs replaces Monreal on the other side. No Koscielny of course so Mertesacker and Gabriel continue their pairing with Flamini and Elneny in front of them.
Ospina
Chambers, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Gibbs
Flamini, Elneny
Walcott, Iwobi, Campbell
Giroud
Subs: Macey, Monreal, Ramsey, Reine-Adelaide, Willock, Ozil, Sanchez.