By Tony Attwood
- Lucky Arsenal v Sinking Wigan: a mishmash of excuses and multiplicity of reds
- Arsenal v Wigan and the question of injuries
And so here we are once again, with a chance to sort out our FA Cup form. And of course, time also to remind ourselves of what the Honours page on the Arsenal website says, which is “We currently hold the record for most FA Cup wins”. Worth remembering if you happen to venture into newspaper land.
Arsenal have 14 FA Cup wins, with Manchester United in second spot with 13 chances to wave the pot in front of the crowd and do an open-top bus tour thereafter. Manchester United, however, did start their run of finals much earlier than Arsenal in fact, 21 years earlier in 1909, when Arsenal were still playing south of the river.
Manchester United do win in the FA Cup statistics; however, it is in the total number of appearances, as they do seem to have a habit of losing finals more often than Arsenal. So yes, they have won the cup 13 times and been in 22 finals. Arsenal have won it 14 times and been in 21 finals. And then way behind in the distance, so far behind in fact that they are quite hard to make out, is Chelsea – eight wins and eight defeats in the final.
And just because the other day I saw someone commenting that Arsenal are only so far ahead of Tottenham in terms of the league wins because Tottenham always focus on the Cup, Tottenham have won the Cup eight times, although the last time that they won the Cup was 1991. Since that day, which I suspect is still commemorated in the new Totty Stad, the cup has been won by the likes of Portsmouth, Wigan (yes the team we play today), Leicester and several top division teams, including, of course, Arsenal.
Anyway, enough of teams that lose, and back to Arsenal – the club that has won more FA Cups than anyone else, while managing not to have lost in as many finals as Manchester Un.
Here’s a snippet of information from the BBC ahead of today’s game. “Wigan Athletic have won their last six away matches in the FA Cup, conceding just one goal in this run….” That might make you think.
So to the team. We know Saliba was ill recently, but it appears he is back fighting fit, and could well be at the heart of the defence, just to stop any sudden upset.
The Standard also expresses the commonly held opinion that “Cup goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga will start in goal and there should be minutes for Ben White and Myles Lewis-Skelly, who have had very limited involvement in recent weeks.”
So they go with a 4 2 3 1 lineup of
Kepa;
White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Calafiori;
Norgaard, Lewis-Skelly;
Madueke, Eze, Martinelli;
Jesus
The Metro have a lineup including a couple of different players and a number of positional changes…
Kepa;
White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly
Rice, Norgaard, Eze
Saka, Jesus, Martinelli
Sports Mole offers us
Kepa;
White, Mosquera, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly;
Eze, Norgaard, Rice;
Madueke, Jesus, Martinelli
So there is a certain amount of twiddling within the same sort of theme going on, but by and large, these are the three main choices that there are.
As for which TV station the game is on, either I have been misreading details, which is quite possible, or no one can quite decide. It looks to be on TNT in the UK, but you might want to check that to make sure it is right.
And just in case you missed them….
- Why the payday for Wigan from the Arsenal game, can’t come soon enough
- Arsenal v Wigan in the FA Cup – how big a threat might Wigan be?
