Wenger Confirms This Player Will Start For Arsenal In FA Cup Semi Final

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed that out-of-favour goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny will start against Reading in this weekend’s FA Cup semi final.

We take on the Championship outfit at Wembley on Saturday evening vying for a place in the final where we’d meet either Liverpool or Aston Villa and it seems Wenger is ready to stick by his principles and play our No.2 keeper in the cup.

Szczesny has been axed from the first team since his horror-show against Southampton back in early January when his two mistakes led to a 2-0 defeat at St Mary’s Stadium.

The Polish international was replaced by David Ospina and this change has coincided with our sensational upturn in form, with Arsenal winning 19 of the 21 games Ospina has started in recent months.

Szczesny has been relegated to the bench and his only three appearances since the Southampton clash have come in FA Cup games against Brighton, Middlesbrough and most recently Manchester United.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference this morning, Wenger has now confirmed that he’ll continue to play his back-up goalkeeper in the FA Cup meaning that Szczesny will start in goal against Reading this weekend.

We’ll have to see whether it turns out to be the right call from the boss. Szczesny has played just 3 games over the past four months so is unlikely to be match sharp, but as Arsene said he did have a very good game against United in the previous round.

Hopefully Wojciech is looking at the FA Cup semi final as an opportunity to show the manager what he’s capable of to try and force his way back into the first team.

Wenger on @13Szczesny13: "He will play on Saturday. He had a very good performance at Manchester United." #RFCvAFC pic.twitter.com/JRBvuyCMHr

— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) April 16, 2015