Arsene Wenger will rest both Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny, who handed Birmingham a Carling Cup final victory at Wembley with a devastating mix-up, for tonight’s FA Cup replay with Orient.
Koscielny will sit out the O’s game with a tight hamstring and Szczesny will be on the bench with Manuel Almunia in goal. Also out is Alex Song who has a sore knee. With RVP, Theo and Cesc out it looks as if Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh will provide the firepower at the Ems.
And AW has called on our players to forget about the final defeat and put on a strong show in the three trophies in which we remain – especially the league title after Manchester United lost three point to a no-mark two bob outfit last night. Nice officiating Mr Referee, by the way.
He said: “We have to live with the conclusions of people and keep our targets and goals. We are in a massive race in the championship, we have an opportunity to qualify in the FA Cup and we have won the first leg in the Champions League. We have much higher targets than the Carling Cup, even though we would have loved to have won it. We all agree about that.
“We cannot let our motivation level or our confidence level drop because of that because of the massive targets we have in front of us. We were all unhappy but we could feel again today determined because we feel we lost in a really disbelieving way. At that moment, we were on top, the result does not reflect the consistent performances recently and the quality of our performances recently.
“Of course, there was disappointment in the dressing room, but the players are united, have a strong bond and are determined to go for the massive challenges we have in front of us.”
AW says he has given both Koscielny and Sczczesny pep talks after their costly blunder: “I have, but not too much. More to Laurent Koscielny, because he suffered more. You have to be realistic, analyse in a realistic way what you did wrong. But, as well, Koscielny has been a great player for us since the start of the season, so it’s important he keeps his confidence level well and that he gets encouragement.
“He takes everything on board and we do not want that his confidence drops because he made certainly a mistake – he is really angry about it. We have, as well, to show that we support him and that we believe he is a fantastic defender. Wojciech is alright, there was more a misunderstanding. Because in the last second, he didn’t cut through, Koscielny, because he thought he saw Wojciech coming out. Then he had a hesitation and that hesitation was fatal for us.”
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