Now we are out of the Champions League Wenger will attach more importance to this match and will be more willing to accept a replay than his Old Trafford counterpart but we will have nine thousand fans who would love to see a more emphatic reaction from our beleaguered squad.

With both teams out of form, frustrations and old rivalries could come to the boil this afternoon. For Arsenal it would a welcome resurrection of a rivalry that has cooled since our seasons began to end in April rather than May. Despite our recent disappointments we still have the opportunity to make this a memorable season and this is a great opportunity to return to Wembley and help to heal old wounds.

Alex Ferguson appears to have worked out how to stop us from playing in our normal style and it is a mark of how much he respects Arsene Wenger that he adapts for every game with him. In the last two weeks Ferguson has gone to Stamford Bridge and Anfield with attacking intent but whenever he takes on Arsenal he makes tactical changes to try to contain our threat.

Unfortunately this tactic has been very successful in the last couple of years and we haven't beaten Man Utd in six matches. The fixtures at Old Trafford have rarely been free flowing and have nearly always been battles of attrition in which we have struggled to score. In our last three FA Cup meetings we haven't scored at all.

Cesc Fabregas will return after the international break and Wojciech Szczesny will be miss the next six weeks, leaving Almunia to resurrect his Arsenal career. Incredibly Robin van Persie didn't have a reaction to his knee injury in Barcelona, perhaps one positive from his dismissal, so he completes a remarkable recovery from injury to lead the team out this afternoon.

The biggest decision that Wenger will face is whether to play the severely out of form Denilson in the absence of Fabregas. His alternative is to move Nasri into the centre and bring Chamakh or Bendtner into the front three. This seems to make a lot more sense as Nasri enjoyed an excellent spell in this central role when Cesc was injured earlier in the season and with van Persie and probably Arshavin, we will have enough quality on the ball further forward. 

Both teams have struggled in the last couple of weeks so we can expect a tight contest perhaps decided by a moment of fortune or, in our case, misfortune. 

Photo: Action Images

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