London (AFP)
N'Golo Kanté will finally be on the substitutes' bench at Wembley on Saturday for the kick-off of the FA Cup final, which will see Kurt Zouma and Olivier Giroud start with Chelsea and Alexandre Lacazette with Arsenal.
The midfielder, injured since early July, is ultimately too fair for this match which could allow Frank Lampard to win his first trophy as a coach.
The Brazilian Wilian is the other big absentee from the Blues, the choice of Frank Lampard to prefer Willy Caballero in the goals in place of the Spaniard Kepa, in whom he does not trust any more, being hardly surprising.
Olivier Giroud, author of 7 goals in 10 games played since the resumption, and Kurt Zouma are, them, well in the starting eleven.
Zouma will notably have in front of him Alexandre Lacazette, surrounded in attack by Nicolas Pépé and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who will become the first African player captain of a team in the final of the FA Cup.
Neither Mesut Özil nor Matteo Guendouzi appear on the scoresheet, Mikel Arteta no longer counting on them for several weeks already.
Arsenal: Martinez - Holding, Luiz, Tierney - Bellerin, Xhaka, Ceballos, Maitland-Niles - Pepe, Lacazette, Aubameyang
Manager: Mikel Arteta
Chelsea: Caballero - James, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Zouma, Alonso - Mount, Jorginho, Kovacic, Pulisic - Giroud
Coach: Frank Lampard
© 2020 AFP