Reading vs Arsenal team news: Welbeck starts as Giroud and Wilshere are named on the bench for FA Cup semi-final clash

 
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Tom Farmery18 April 2015

Danny Welbeck starts up front on his own for Arsenal, while Wojciech Szczesny is in goal.

The Gunners, who are aiming to reach their 19th FA Cup final, have named a strong team behind the English striker, who scored in the 2-1 quarter-final win over Manchester United, and in front of the Polish goalkeeper.

Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez occupy the three attacking midfield positions, with the defensive pairing of Francis Coquelin and Aaron Ramsey behind them.

Mathieu Debuchy and Kieran Gibbs occupy the right and left full-back positions. Per Mertesacker is preferred ahead of Gabriel Paulista to start alongside Laurent Koscielny.

Meanwhile, Pavel Pogrebnyak and Jamie Mackie start up front for Reading. Yakubu, who has scored five goals against Arsenal, will start on the bench. Top goalscorer Simon Cox, who has scored eight goals this campaign, is also a substitute.

This is Reading’s first FA Cup final and they are not expected to defeat Arsenal. Their form is very poor. They are 18th in the Championship and haven’t won in six games with their last victory being the 3-0 win over Bradford City in the quarter-finals.

There is reason for the Royals to have a little hope, though. On their run to the semi-finals they have only conceded two goals.

TEAMS IN FULL:

Reading starting XI: Federici, Gunter, Obita, Pearce, Hector, Williams, Chalobah, McCleary, Robson-Kanu, Mackie, Pogrebnyak

Substitutes: Anderson, Kelly, Cooper, Karacan, Norwood, Cox, Yakubu

Arsenal starting XI: Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Ramsey, Cazorla, Ozil, Alexis, Welbeck

Substitutes: Ospina, Gabriel, Monreal, Flamini, Wilshere, Walcott, Giroud

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Speaking ahead of the match, Mertesacker insisted that retaining the FA Cup would show significant progression from Wenger's side.

“The FA Cup was a very historical title but to repeat that is a massive step for us as well,” he said. “To take it game by game and not exaggerate it by thinking too much about that defence is the key and is very important.

“To go on or to be consistent - that is a tough target but we push ourselves. We want to be able to defend a title and be able to compete at the top which makes us at the moment a good team. We haven’t showed that consistently this season because all of a sudden we lost one game [in the Champions League to Monaco] and in a cup competition you cannot afford that.

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