Harry Redknapp: Arsenal cannot use uncertainty surrounding Arsene Wenger as an excuse in the FA Cup Final

The uncertainty over Arsene Wenger’s future has been a disruption to Arsenal for months but the players cannot use that as an excuse in the FA Cup Final.

Saturday is a one-off game against a top team, with a trophy on the line. They beat Manchester City in the semi-finals when they were everybody’s second-favourites, coming together to find a way to win — and that’s what Arsenal must do all over again.

It’s not an impossible task. We’re not talking about massive underdogs here. They have match-winners - Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil can turn it on at any moment - and that always gives you a chance.

Arsene said last weekend his situation has made things more difficult in the last few months but the real ‘disruption’ is that it has given the players an excuse to underperform.

You hear Arsenal players saying ‘It’s been difficult... I don’t know what I’m going to do next season... it depends on the manager’ but I doubt they care that much.

A new manager comes in and the old one is forgotten overnight, in the players’ minds anyway.

​Arsene is a professional and he’ll have set his teams up in the right way. Nothing will have changed on a day-to-day basis, so if their level drops, that’s down to them not fancying it.

You can argue it’s Arsene’s job to motivate them - and that’s probably why a lot of the fans want him out because they are always so inconsistent - but hunger should not be an issue at Wembley.

The competition isn’t what it was but the final is still a great occasion. You don’t want to stand there and watch the other team celebrate afterwards, no matter what the trophy is.

Arsenal’s biggest problem is in defence. Losing Laurent Koscielny to suspension is a massive blow for them and with Gabriel out and Shkodran Mustafi a big doubt, Per Mertesacker could start his first game in over a year. That would be a massive call.

The last time something like that happened was probably when Ledley King came in for Tottenham against Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup Final but even he had played six times earlier in the season.

Ledley made the semi-final against Arsenal but then didn’t appear in any competition until the final. He was unbelievable in the way he couldn’t train but could then play, or go weeks without a game and suddenly turn it on when you needed him most.

But Mertesacker is older than Ledley was then - and even if he was fully fit, you’d worry about him having problems with the mobility of Chelsea’s forwards.

I have to be honest, that’s also the case with Mustafi, who hasn’t impressed me much during his first season in England.

Given that, you have to pick your best goalkeeper - and that is obviously Petr Cech. David Ospina played in every round for which he was fit (he missed the quarter-final and semi-final through injury) but it’s such a massive game you have to go with your main man.

They supposedly have this agreement that Ospina will play but there should be no room for sentiment. Chelsea won’t suddenly start John Terry because it’s his final game and he’s a club legend. So why should Arsene pick Ospina, especially when it seems as though he’s going to leave Arsenal in the summer regardless?

Chelsea will be desperate to do the Double. They’ve had a breather after winning the Premier League but Antonio Conte won’t have let them take their foot off the pedal too much. He’ll have drilled them hard this week and they’ll want to sign off with another trophy.

Whether it’ll be enough to keep their best players at the club, who knows? Chelsea can rightly say they’re the best club in England but it depends who comes in for them and what their ambitions are.

If Real Madrid come in for Eden Hazard, he may go. If Diego Costa wants £500,000 a week in China, he could easily go there. They might think they’ve achieved all they can at Chelsea and move on. But whatever the future holds for them, that can’t be an excuse for Chelsea either this weekend.