Arsenal continues in FA Cup

FA CUP kings Arsenal ignited their campaign to bring the trophy back to North London for a third successive year as they extinguished Sunderland in a comfortable win at the Emirates today (Saturday).

Given Sunderland’s perilous league position and Sam Allardyce’s track record in FA Cup selection, we didn’t anticipate many problems for the Gunners and went for a 4-1 home win.

When asked if he believes Arsene Wenger’s men can do the double, the Spaniard said: “That is the goal of the whole team”. What I will say is we take this competition with a desire to do well in it and to try to win it. It is a long way in the cup and you need a long run.

Allardyce said: “We haven’t had any interest in Jeremain from anybody else, so I would want him to be a big part of what we’re trying to do to get out of the trouble we’re in”.

“I have been on a lot of loans and have benefited from each of them”. Every game now until the end of the season is huge for us. “We have to travel 1,800 miles in three away games”, yet some years back he was known when managing Bolton Wanderers for fielding weakened teams in the FA Cup.

The most notable of his changes was in goal, where he handed a debut to England Under-21 goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. The Preston one really helped me. “We have got Younes (Kaboul) out, Seb Larsson, people like that who would probably go into our starting XI so for me it is more about getting everybody fit than seeing new faces come in”, the midfielder added.

Having spent the first half of the season on loan at Preston, Pickford was recalled and drafted in for the game at Arsenal and the local boy was delighted to make his Sunderland bow.

“I didn’t feel too nervous. I’ll have to carry on working hard in training and keep putting the pressure on”.

Sunderland who have not won in ten visits to the Emirates scored first in the game when Laurent Koscielny lost the ball from a Kieran Gibbs close pass allowing Jermaine Lens to steal the ball and net from a shot.