Thanks to a few stutters in a rather convincing campaign, Arsenal fell out of the title race gifting Jose Mourinho his second trophy of the season, but the Gunners are now in contention to keep hold of the Football Association Cup as they go head-to-head with Aston Villa on Saturday evening.

Arsene Wenger will cherish the selection headache that he will likely get following the return of Jack Wilshere, Mathieu Debuchy and Theo Walcott to full match fitness, but quarter-final hero Danny Welbeck has not proved to be available for the Wembley showdown with a knee injury.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is expected to be part of the plans following his return to training sessions.

The French manager has two top notch goalkeepers to choose from to guard the Arsenal goal, but given the controversy that surrounds Wojciech Szczesny, David Ospina may be chosen to represent Arsenal with gloves. Arsene Wenger may be forced either to choose to offer the Colombian a chance to play the prestigious FA Cup final for the Emirates Stadium club.

Bob Wilson said:

“I think he will play Szczesny,” he told the Islington Gazette. “That is what Arsene Wenger does – it is a loyalty thing.

“Despite everything, despite his rashness and the incident with the cigarette – which I actually think was blown up a little too much – I still maintain the potential for Wojciech is really big.”

Arsene Wenger has a huge decision to make either to choose the highly experienced Mathieu Debuchy, who may offer stability given his experience while Hector Bellerin plays the role of his understudy. There would not be any other changes to the back four as one can expect the other three – Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal to be the first few fixtures in the Arsene Wenger line-up.

Arsenal line-up: Szczesny, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Walcott

Arsenal v Aston Villa live stream

Jack Wilshere said:

“I’ve been injured for a long time this season. I’ve worked hard. All I want to do at the minute is play football.

“I really want to play. It’s probably the biggest game of the season. I’ve been injured for a lot of the season so it’s been frustrating and I’ve worked really hard to come back.

“I feel really good. Of course it’s down to the manager but hopefully I will play.”

Per Mertesacker said:

“Everyone is really up for it. It’s another special occasion for us to show we are capable of winning something.

“But we need the right attitude to compete at that high level and we need to turn up with our best performance, maybe of the season, to grab a title again.”