Wednesday Dugout Discussion

Gameweek 23 comes to a conclusion with tonight’s encounter at the Emirates as Arsenal and West Ham play out their postponed Christmas fixture with flakes of snow in the air. With Theo Walcott and Santi Cazorla sporting the armband for many, there’s plenty of interest in tonight’s events and our Dugout Discussion chatroom is now open to capture all the emotion and point scoring as the match is played out.

The team news from the Emirates finds Arsene Wenger restoring Lukas Podolski to his starting lineup after the German missed the defeat at Stamford Bridge through illness. Aaron Ramsey also comes in as both Francis Coquelin and Abou Diaby make way. Olivier Giroud keeps his start up front then, with Walcott likely to be patrolling the right flank and Santi Cazorla back in a central role. As for West Ham, they also make changes with Carlton Cole, Matt Taylor, Jack Collison and Ricardo Vaz Te all earning starts: Joe Cole, Matt Jarvis and Mo Diame drop to the bench, Marouane Chamakh is ineligible against his parent club.

There’s also a Capital One Cup semi-final taking place at the Liberty of course, with Chelsea chasing a deficit against Swansea. The main news from the teamsheets here is that Demba Ba is back in the starting lineup with Fernando Torres benched. Also amongst the subs are John Terry and David Luiz – the Brazilian makes a return after missing the win over Arsenal with an ankle knock.