Ok, a bit tongue in cheek about Steve Bould. According to old favourite Paul Merson, a little while back the two of them were sat talking about the up and coming players at Arsenal and Merse asked who was going to be the ones to watch.

Bouldy said:

We’ve got this boy called Jack, he’s going to be a top, top player. You won’t believe how good he is going to be.

He said he was so good, he reminded him of Gazza (Paul Gascoigne for those who didn’t know)

Gazza was a great player in his day but sadly his off field antics were to be his downfall and I’m sure he ever truly got from the game what his talent and ability deserved. Wilshere has had a couple of brushes with the law which I hope has taught him a lesson and hopefully now he’ll settle down and not follow in the footsteps of a few English players who have appeared more times in front of a magistrate than they probably did their headmaster/mistress!

Thankfully Jack is reported to be tee-total, phew! I think he’ll will be better than Gazza and if he keeps his head screwed on, he’ll play for many more years that Gazza did.

On to today, we’ve already covered the connection between the two sides playing today and the sentiment behind that connection but when kick off arrives, that needs to be forgotten. We are in all four; we want all four so forget the so-called β€˜gulf’ between the two sides, approach Huddersfield as if it were Barcelona, focus and get the right result. We don’t need a draw, we need a win.

I love the FA Cup and I’m sure we all want another date at Wembley so the team best not think this is done and dusted before it begins. It isn’t! Huddersfield will come to The Emirates with nothing to lose but they will also be very aware of the fact that Arsene Wenger will make changes, many changes!

To be fair, we all hoped the changes would be made today rather than in the midweek game just gone, so we can’t really moan today can we?

I don’t know much about Huddersfield FC and I’m not going to pretend I do, my knowledge ends at the Herbert Chapman connection and that’s no disrespect to our opposition. Their leading scorer Jordan Rhodes is out with an ankle injury and our teenager Benik Afobe cannot play whilst on a youth loan. Huddersfield are also without their defender Tamas Kadar with hamstring trouble.

Huddersfield are 45 places below us in the league but this is the FA Cup, league standings mean very little.

The last time we met was in the 1993/94 League Cup, we went through in the end 6-1 on aggregate. The last time we lost to today’s opposition was in 1971 but we have never lost to them in a cup competition!

Speculation is that Almunia will make his return today, as will Squillaci. Diaby and Rosicky are also in contention for a return. I think both Djourou and Koscielny could be rested and young Miguel will make his first start but I could be wrong; after all, I’m just β€˜some woman off the internet’ πŸ˜‰

On that note, that’s it – changes yes, they are needed but I hope those who get their chance today play well, certainly well enough to take us into the next round of the FA Cup. I also hope a few of the big boys are on the bench, just in case.

Have a good day all, don’t forget it’s an early start – 12.00 here in the UK.