SOCCER/ Manchester Utd v Arsenal, 12.0, BBC 1: Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson both have doubts about their star strikers going into today's FA Cup semi-final showdown between Arsenal and Manchester United.

The Frenchman will leave his key selection decision - whether to rest Thierry Henry - until the last minute, while Ferguson entered into his customary mind games by declaring Ruud van Nistelrooy to be doubtful, even though Wenger expects the Dutchman to start.

The Arsenal manager knows his team face a gruelling schedule of four games in the next nine days, a programme he describes as "beyond common sense".

He accepts some of his team, most notably in defence, may have to play against United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle, but he is unlikely to ask the same of his impact players, such as Henry.

The overriding question for Wenger to answer, therefore, is which games Henry can miss or play in the next fortnight without jeopardising either Arsenal's treble hopes or his own fitness.

The Frenchman was rested from last season's FA Cup fifth-round victory at Old Trafford, but then again, Wenger does not want to run the risk of interrupting his side's unbeaten run.

So while Dennis Bergkamp seems assured of the chance to avenge the 1999 FA Cup semi-final defeat to United, the Arsenal boss was delaying the decision of whether to start with Henry or Jose Reyes.

"Frankly, I have not made up my mind yet and I want to leave my options open," he revealed at his mid-afternoon press conference yesterday.

Henry played the second half of France's midweek friendly in Holland, but was then flown back on a private plane after the end of the match, his 47th game of the season for club and country.

United's plans, meanwhile, have been thrown into chaos and part of the blame is being laid at the door of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

The England coach's fraught relationship with the club took another downturn this week when he apparently went back on a deal that was struck for Nicky Butt and Phil Neville to play in Wednesday's friendly in Sweden while Gary Neville and Paul Scholes remained at home.

Ferguson struck the agreement in the belief that neither Butt nor Neville would be required to play for more than 45 minutes of the game. Instead, much to the United manager's annoyance Butt appeared for 77 minutes of the 1-0 defeat, while Neville was one of two outfield players to complete the entire game in Gothenburg.

As a consequence, Ferguson has opted to write the pair out of the Villa Park encounter.

"We certainly didn't expect them to play for that long," said the United boss.

"We expected it to be half a game. The pair have ruled themselves out in a way and so I have had to change my thinking."

The anger at Eriksson's handling of his players is keenly felt, although Neville and Butt were likely to be on the bench at best and their absences will pale into insignificance should 26-goal hit-man van Nistelrooy fail a fitness test on his knee injury.

The Dutchman suffered the knock in last Sunday's 1-1 draw at Highbury but it was not until he reported for training with Holland the following day that he noticed some severe swelling.

National team boss Dick Advocaat kept van Nistelrooy out of training and opted against putting him on the bench for the goalless draw with France, claiming he should be fit for today's game.

Ferguson countered yesterday by stating his star striker was "very doubtful".

And while some pundits have suggested the Scot is merely trying to confuse the Gunners' camp, the problem is sufficiently worrying for Diego Forlan to be called back from South America, where he had been expected to remain for a few days following Uruguay's disappointing World Cup defeat to Venezuela.

With Louis Saha cup-tied, if van Nistelrooy does not make it Ferguson will be forced to give Forlan his biggest game in a United shirt, or name a makeshift forward line comprising the likes of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs or fit-again Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

It is certainly not the ideal preparation for a game United must win to retain a chance of claiming silverware this term and prevent their season ending in complete anti-climax.

"Fortunately we have players with good temperament and that has helped us over the years. Hopefully it will be the same again tomorrow," said Ferguson.

A first FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium may not be adequate compensation for missing out on the season's major targets but it would send United into the summer in positive mood.