Arsenal vs Hull Preview, Team News, Likely Line-Ups, Predicted Score & Betting Tips

Arsenal will begin the defence of the FA Cup when they take on last years finalists Hull City at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.

We won a thrilling final back in May when we came from two-down to win the Cup in extra-time thanks to an Aaron Ramsey strike to end our much-talked-about nine year trophy drought.

Hull will certainly be out to avenge that defeat and they proved once again back in October that they will give us a close game when they left the Emirates with a well-earned 2-2 draw, so there’s no way we should be taking this game lightly.

We warmed up for the match with a hugely disappointing 2-0 defeat at Southampton on New Year’s Day so hopefully the players will see defending the FA Cup as a welcome distraction to what’s been a frustrating league campaign so far.

Team News

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that David Opsina will start in goal with Wojciech Szczesny dropping out following his poor display at Southampton last time out.

Lukas Podolski won’t be involved as he’s in Italy to complete his six-month loan move to Inter Milan while Olivier Giroud serves the final of his three-game ban following his sending off against QPR last month.

Danny Welbeck is a doubt with a thigh injury but should pass a late fitness test to start up front which would allow the boss to give Alexis Sanchez a well-earned rest.

Theo Walcott is pushing for his first start in a year after making a substitute appearance at St Mary’s on Thursday while Mathieu Flamini is hopeful of shaking off a knock to start in midfield.

Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil are back in training but are unlikely to feature in this game – certainly not from the start anyway – while Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Abou Diaby remain unavailable.

As for Hull, they welcome back Tom Huddlestone and Stephen Quinn from suspension while Harry Maguire, Tom Ince and Yannick Sagbo will be hopeful of playing some part in the game.

Andy Robertson, Liam Rosenior, Gaston Ramirez, Mohamed Diame and Michael Dawson all remain missing through injury.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Arsenal 2-1 Hull: It’s going to a difficult third round tie and luck hasn’t favoured us by pitting us against last years finalists, but despite our injury worries I think the boys will bounce back from Thursday’s disappointment by booking a place in the next round.

Betting Tips

Arsenal are the heavy favourites to win the game on Sunday but thanks to Football-Talk you can get enhanced odds of 4/1 on a Gunners victory with Betfair. A 2-1 win is on offer at 17/2 while I also like the look of Theo Walcott to open the scoring at 9/2. If we combine those two bets in a scorecast then we get very tempting odds of 35/1. Surely that’s got to be worth a couple of quid!?

BACK ARSENAL TO WIN AT ODDS OF 4/1 – MONEY BACK IF YOU LOSE

What team would you like to see start and whats your predicted score for the game?