The Game

Our most important game of the season. No, it’s not Barcelona we are about to play but Championship side Ipswich Town yet today’s game is indeed very, very important.

Those who said our season depends on this game are right as I doubt we would recover from it if we fail to reach the Wembley Final. Andrey Arshavin – as honest as always – said we were lucky to get such an easy draw in Cups and he’s right of course and that is why we simply cannot fail to take advantage of such an easy path to the Final, where Birmingham City or West Ham United will be waiting next month.

And with Robin van Persie, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott all fit and ready to lead us to glory, my gut feeling is that we will find an early goal and go on to score at least four tonight. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Let’s do it lads. Wembley is waiting, the game is not impossible to win so let’s make it an unforgettable night and keep our positive momentum going!

And, until you wait for kick-off, check out what Jack Wilshere believes is the key to win big tonight and also Arsene Wenger’s latest on the recovery process of Abou Diaby and Sebastien Squillaci.

As always, please do join the discussion in our chat room which will also be active after the full time whistle. You will be glad to know that from this season, to provide a better chat experience to our readers, users can be banned if they post offensive comments.

Streaming Links

For those who don’t know where to watch the game, maybe we can help, follow this link for streaming options. Links are updated before and during the match.

The Line-Ups

Arsenal

Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy, Denilson, Wilshere, Fabregas, Bendtner, Arshavin, van Persie

Subs: Shea, Nasri, Walcott, Song, Eboue, Gibbs, Chamakh

Ipswich Town

Fulop, Leadbitter, McAuley, Delaney, O’Dea, Kennedy, Healy, Norris, Edwards, Wickham, Priskin

Subs: Lee-Barrett, Peters, O’Connor, Scotland, Hyam, Smith, Civelli

Half-Time Thoughts and Analysis

Is this going to be one of those days? Ipswich Town came at the Emirates with a very simple plan: play hard, make fouls and hope to score from a counter attack.

It’s ugly, it’s not nice but I must say some of their tackles and defending at the back were impressive. We are doing things right although Cesc Fabregas needs to step it up a little after having a disappointing first half. Robin is doing well and so is Nicklas who delivered a superb cross for the Dutchman’s head.

We have to be careful. Objective one is to score but objective two, very close to the first one, is of course not to concede.

At half time, it’s Arsenal nil, Ipswich nil.