Wojciech Szczesny will retain his place in goal at West Ham after Lukasz Fabianski was ruled out of the game.
Arsenal.com reports that the older of Arsenal’s Polish goalkeepers was given a 50:50 chance of recovering from a shoulder injury in time for the London derby but he failed a fitness test today, opening the door for his younger compatriot to make his third consecutive first-team appearance.
“Fabianski is out,” said AW at his pre-match press conference. “It’s not very bad [his injury]. It’s a question of days. He had a test this morning but he didn’t make it.”
AW confirmed that Szczesny will deputise in goal at Upton Park while Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri are back in the squad after sitting out the cup ties against Leeds and Ipswich.
“They are back and the rest of the squad is similar to the squad we had last Saturday and Wednesday,” said AW. “So it will be a similar team.”
Denilson (thigh) has shrugged off a minor complaint (no smug comments here, please) but Thomas Vermaelen (Achilles), Manuel Almunia (ankle), Sebastien Squillaci (hamstring) and Abou Diaby (calf) are all still sidelined.
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