The Game

Good early-afternoon everyone and an early kick-off today for the Gunners as we play Huddersfield Town in round four, F.A. Cup action.

It will hopefully be an easy game for Arsenal as we welcome back Sebastien Squillaci, Abou Diaby and Manuel Almunia back in the squad. The Frenchmen are expected to start with the Spaniard, most likely, on the bench. It is of course important to find an early goal, take control of the game, seal it in the first half and rest key players ahead of Tuesday’s game against Everton.

Easy game but let’s not underestimate our opponents of course. And for all those enjoying the Australian Open Final between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, it seems the match will be over in time to shift our focus to the Emirates, hoping to have more lucky than the poor Scotsman.

And, until you wait for kick-off, check out Arsene Wenger’s latest on transfers including keeping Andrey Arshavin and why the Ipswich goal is one of the best five for Nicklas Bendtner.

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

Almunia, Eboue, Koscielny, Squillaci, Gibbs, Diaby, Denilson, Bendtner, Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh

Subs: Szczesny, Fabregas, Rosicky, van Persie, Walcott, Song, Wilshere

Huddersfield Town

Bennett, Peltier, Peter Clarke, McCombe, Kilbane, Roberts, Gudjonsson, Tom Clarke, Hunt, Pilkington, Lee

Subs: Colgan, Naysmith, Kay, Arfield, Novak, Atkinson, Chippendale

Half-Time Thoughts and Analysis

I am not entirely sure what is the reason why we struggled against Championship sides Leeds and Ipswich and now also against League One Huddersfield.

With Manuel Almunia, Sebastien Squillaci and Abou Diaby all making their comeback in the first eleven, a quiet start to the game saw Andrey Arshavin blast one high from short distance although the Russian went on to enjoy a very good first half of football in which he produced something like 4-5 assists for his team-mates.

After taking the lead in the 20th minute, all sorts of trouble started to hit our team with Samir Nasri leaving the pitch after suffering a hamstring injury, Squillaci, Denilson and Kieran Gibbs making one mistake after the other and then the sending off of the Frenchman who is already out of the team for the next couple of games.

The reason why Arsene believes the 30-year old is “quality” is beyond me as is beyond me the reason why Denilson keeps starting when he is clearly a liability, a mediocre figure in a team of top class players.

At half time, it’s Arsenal one, Huddersfield Town, nil.