Lincoln City defender ready to ‘smash’ Alexis! Crazy decision made ahead of FA Cup clash.

Morning all.

As we head into this quarter-final FA Cup clash against non league side Lincoln City, I’m sure there are a number of fans who couldn’t care less if we were to lose, after all, such a gigantic failure would surely see Arsene Wenger walk away, especially if a top four place eludes him and his team this season. If Stan Kroenke does only care about making money and seeing his share price grow, then the Frenchman will have failed to meet the goals which many believe are set for him at the beginning of each season. Top four, Champions League and all the riches it brings.

I’m not entirely convinced that’s the case and despite the American saying a while back that if he was at Arsenal for trophies, he wouldn’t be involved in the club, I’m sure like us, he’d love to see us being more successful on the pitch. Why? Because the further up the league we finish, the more the club earns and the further we progress in the Champions League, same, more revenue but as said the other day, any chance of winning either are long gone now.

So this is it, our last chance, albeit slim, of winning a record number of FA Cup trophies. Not today of course, but if we can beat Lincoln City, then it’s a trip to Wembley for the semi-finals. Fingers crossed Boro can cause an upset at lunchtime today and Millwall kick the living daylights out Kane and co tomorrow….

But best I don’t get ahead of myself as this group of players must be terribly low in confidence. The Lincoln City boys have nothing to lose today, we however, have everything to lose.

I know absolutely nothing about today’s opposition so I’ve nicked a few factoids from the BBC:

Lincoln City

• Lincoln are the first non-league side to reach the last eight of the FA Cup since 1914 – when QPR (of the Southern League) were beaten at what was then called the fourth round (it was the equivalent of the quarter-finals).
• The last non-league team to play in an FA Cup semi-final were Swindon in 1912.
• The last time a non-league team eliminated two top-flight sides in a single FA Cup campaign was in 1914, when Millwall knocked out Chelsea and Bradford City.
• They have lost just two of their last of their last 24 games in all competitions (W19, D3).
• They scored with their only shot on target against Burnley in the last round.

Beating Burnley away from home was the biggest scalp they’ve taken so far but should they go away from The Emirates with an even bigger scalp taken, we’ll never ever hear the last of it. Each and every time an FA Cup fixture comes around in future, it’ll be, ‘Arsenal, who were beaten by non league side Lincoln last season………’

That’s not going to happen is it, not today. This team needs to bounce back from what really has been an awful period.

Defender Bradley Wood, whose brother is an Arsenal fan, is looking forward to facing Alexis Sanchez. He’s quoted in The mail as saying:

‘There are many ways to skin a cat and by hook or crook that’s what I’ll try to do to him. If he tries to run me in the channels then I’m smashing him. That’s not to say that I’m going to boot him 24/7 but if I manage to keep him quiet then I’ll have done a good job. It’ll be the same on the left side with Sam [Habergham and in the centre with Luke [Waterfall] and Sean [Raggett].’

‘We’re coming up against world class players who are better than us, we know that, but we’ve got a big, big heart and we’re not going to be tourists on a stadium tour,’ he adds.

‘Arsenal are going through a sticky patch, they’ve got the fans on their backs. After 20 or 30 minutes, if it’s still 0-0 or we’re 1-0 up, I’m sure those 9,000 Lincoln fans will turn into 20,000 and the longer the game goes on it’ll get worse for them. We’ve got our game plan and we know if we implement that we’ll be ok.’

That’s nice, in other words, it’s going to be a strong, physical and perhaps a dirty match. I just hope Anthony Taylor hasn’t been out on the town last night because he’ll need to be on the ball if the dirty tactics are on show.

Oh, and I hope he’s not out to get one back on the Arsenal manager after their little spat earlier on in the season. Funny how Riley has appointed him for this one though eh.

Oh well, enjoy the game. I hope to see a strong side, a top performance and of course, a resounding victory to the boys in red and white…