Arsenal begin quest for rare Cup treble

“Wem-ber-ley, Wem-ber-ley!” they sang, as Sunderland were condemned to a four-month battle to ensure they stay in the Premier League. Sunderland, of course, have won the FA Cup twice, most famously in 1973 when as a second division outfit, they defeated Don Revie’s Leeds at Wembley in memorable fashion. They may have won it two years in a row, but in those seasons they were a fair bit off challenging for the Premier League.

“But look, if you win the FA Cup, like Wigan did and who now find themselves in League One having been relegated after winning that FA Cup – this club can not afford that”.

Everton’s Darron Gibson has been linked with Sunderland – four-and-a-half years after the Black Cats came close to signing the midfielder. As the clearest example, you only have to look at how Arsenal have finally kicked on from their successive victories, using the psychological unifying effect of a tangible trophy to aim for bigger ones.

“But, as for the rest, I don’t understand it. Certainly, if we were fortunate enough to be mid-table in the Premier League and I was still joint-chairman, I would not want us to play a weakened team”.

He said: “If the Premier League chose to put a stupid fixture midweek when they don’t bloody need to, then I haven’t got much choice but to make changes”.

In 2011, he was part of the Stevenage side that knocked Newcastle United and in 2012 he helped force a replay against Tottenham with the same team.

“What is nice is that the first round of the competition is at home and that’s great for the fans”. “He’s a Sunderland boy and a Sunderland fan and he’s made such an outstanding impact at Preston it would have been wrong of me not to bring him back here”. Therefore, as much as an FA Cup win would be welcomed, it won’t now be seen as a necessity. “Maybe he has injuries”.

Despite Villa’s first premier league relegation appearing inevitable, there still may be hope for the West Midlands side.

RR: I honestly don’t know, because I know Wenger likes to mix it up when it comes to picking his team for the cup competitions.

City might have expected more trouble from Norwich but Aguero put them ahead early, Kelechi Iheanacho doubled their lead and substitute Kevin de Bruyne completed a comfortable win.

When it comes to left back options, Sam Allardyce possesses very few – in our senior squad only Patrick Van Aanholt and Billy Jones can operate in that position and neither have enjoyed a particularly convincing season thus far.

“They have said that we’ve requested a change, which we have in the past, but not in these circumstances and if they’d examined the circumstances we’ve got, they’ll have seen that we’ve got three very hard away games in a short period of time. Mikel Arteta is available and will be selected because he played 45 minutes on Tuesday with the under-21s”.