GORDON Strachan admits Jo Tessem might have played his way into Saints' FA Cup final team to take on Arsenal.

The Norwegian, pictured, was one of the few to come out of Wednesday's 6-1 Highbury beating with any credit - scoring once and giving centre-backs Oleg Luzhny and Igors Stepa-novs plenty of trouble all night.

Until then, Strachan's likely FA Cup starting line-up looked fairly predictable with Chris Marsden, Matthew Oakley, Anders Svensson and Fabrice Fernandes across the middle and Brett Ormerod partnering 24-goal James Beattie in attack.

But Tessem is now challenging to either take the place up front of semi-final hero Ormerod or come into a reshuffled midfield - with Fernandes, who was substituted after just 26 minutes on Wednesday, now looking a possible casualty.

Marsden is expected to return for the big match, but is still recovering from a knee injury.

Strachan said: "My strikers did well at Arsenal. Jo Tessem did very well. He has got him on the team bus and he's got a big possibility of being on the green stuff when the game is getting played.

"Now he has a chance of being a hero and scoring the winner, so he's done alright for himself.

"I will pick the team with the biggest hearts who want to run and close down - if we don't do that, we've got no chance.

Tessem insisted Wednesday's match would have little bearing on next week. He said: "The Cup final will be totally different - it's a one-off.

"I was pleased to score at Highbury - it was a fantastic ball by Wayne Bridge - but is was not much of a consolation.

"We know we'll be up against a very good side in the final - but we'll be up for it, too."