Already been mentioned, but Wigan just beat City in their own back yard so anybody thinking this is going to be a walk over has a serious blind spot. I think we've got a great chance to win the trophy now, but we cannot go into this game thinking that it's ours already, that is footballing suicide. Also the opinion that Wenger should be sacked if he doesn't win it is symptomatic of this narrow way of seeing things. Nothing in football is guaranteed, you have to beat the opposition in front of you and earn your success. The fact that Wigan are in the Semi's is because they have earned the right to be there, so we need to respect them and treat this game in the same way as if we were playing City.
We don't win, no excuses, simple as that. Wigan beat City, but we're still a much better side than Wigan. Nothing in football is guaranteed, but when you go 9 years without a trophy, and you have the set of fixtures we have to win a trophy, and we still don't, then it's pretty much a guarantee that we are hopeless and will never win anything under Wenger again, who the heck you kidding, you can't win a cup against the likes of Wigan-Sheffield-Hull but you think we're 'elite' under Wenger and can win the leagues and possibly win in Europe? The 2 don't go together, so it's not at all very narrow minded, but looking at the broader picture. You're just already coming up with bad excuses should we fail, ignoring the major context of 9 failed years of Wenger, and this would just add to that, and add to it in a bad bad way because you couldn't ask for an easier last 2 games to win a cup.
Some people on here want to have their cake and eat it. On one hand they claim Arsenal are ELITE, as in ELITE in the same category as your Madrid's and Barca's, but we haven't won anything in 9 years, and even if we win nothing this year again, when you couldn't ask for a better set of fixtures to win the cup, that's not bad at all and sh!t just happens you know. Excuse me people, but I don't know teams that are considered to be elite that go 9 years without a trophy, and then a possible 10th after getting dumped out of the cup by much much much inferior teams. Either Arsenal are elite, and we finally win something, or we aren't elite, which is why we win nothing and why it would be acceptable for us to lose to either Wigan or Sheffield-Hull. You can't have both, if you try to have both, then well, you just sound like a ****ing a idiot. This is real world, none of that fairy tale bullshit of you don't have to be first to be a real winner, this ain't no disney movie okay?
I bloomin' hope we don't treat Wigan like they're City. We bent over in that game and presented ourselves to 'em. I can't bear another inept performance like that. Hopefully we'll approach this like we have every other FA Cup game so far this season. People keep on about City missing chances but had they actually given Wigan credit for 90 minutes rather than just 30 then maybe they'd not be in this situation. A confident, professional approach should see us progress.
All things being equal you should win the Cup from here, and you should certainly be confident of doing so. However, football throws up shocks, as it did in last years final & then again yesterday, so you can't take anything for granted. I think you'll end up having 2 tough games before you do lift it, but I think you will nonetheless.
On the league and CL front, you guys are the underdogs and won't look silly should you fail so long as you give a good account of yourselves. The FA Cup (now) makes you the favourites, a tag you guys are not used to so suddenly you've seen posters playing down the odds rather than shouting from the roof tops. Its normal human behaviour since nobody ever wants to look silly and there is a risk that arsenal could with the teams that are left in it. That shouldn't be the case, no more so than losing to a lower rank team in the earlier round because you get the same outcome. However, it is the case because the spot light is firmly pointing in your direction because the other three teams aren't a patch on Arsenal. As I said above though, its not won yet but it is yours to lose. All the best
Bah, you've been alright in patches and that game was when you were on a proper decent run if memory serves. I'll grant you that you were sh*te on the day though because I'm magnanimous like that.
Your memory is **** mate....we lost 5 nil at home to pool, 2-1 at home to west ham, beat soton 3-2 away, drew 1 all with west brom and beat stoke 4 nil...in our previous 5 matches We have not reached the heights of being alright all season...at our high point we managed to be not completely mind numbingly boring!
If we go into this match showing them too much "respect" and are then timid about pushing them , it will be a disaster . That precisely WHY Wigan are in the final , they had NO fear of City . We must have NO fear of Wigan , if we do we are fooked before we start . We have seen loads of time what happens when we show lesser teams "respect " Birmingham , Bradford , we must NOT treat them like they are Barcalona . They have determination and a little skill . We must have determination and the LOT of skill which we have shown we have . One without the other is not enough .
He means we cant keep banging on about how good we are and then pi$$ your pants when you get to play Wigan . Its quite simple .
