Maybe the Arsenal reserves will do better against West Ham than our first team did!

Arsenal face West Ham United this evening in a game that could get us to the semi-final of the competition, but he is obviously worried about playing any of his tired first team players, who have played three games in the space of a week and the boss wants them fresh for Friday night’s crucial clash against Liverpool.

Bt not only are our reserves fresher, they also proved they could score lots of goals in our race to the top of our Europa League Group, so perhaps they could even perform better than our first team, who only managed a 0-0 draw in our League game against the Hammers last week. Wenger said in yesterday’s pre-game press conference: “Some players are a little bit on the edge.”

“I think as well that we have so many quality players who did not start on Saturday, so you cannot say that you prefer to play a player who has played three games in six days to a guy who is at the same level and is completely fresh.

“The players who will start are basically all international players, so that’s why I think [squad rotation] makes sense. You have as well to show the trust and the confidence that we have in the players who did not start last week.”

I think this is a very sensible move by the boss. All our first team strikers are obviously jaded and they have shown in the last few games that they couldn’t hit a barn door from five yards. Walcott, Welbeck and Giroud will be keen to make their mark tonight and try to convince that he is starting the wrong forward line in the Premier League. And I think they may be right!