“Who is it this week?” – FA Cup semi-final preview

Greetings, Gooners! Welcome to another special FA Cup preview!

Here’s the Quarter-Final preview.

This Sunday, we play Man City in the semi-final at Wembley.

The Managers

Arsenal

  • Here’s Wengers pre-match press conference.
  • On the possibility of a back three on Sunday: “It’s an option, yes. But what will I do? You will understand I won’t tell you now. (The system) was testing to give us more defensive stability because lately we concede too many goals. The definition of a good football player is that he is adaptable to the situation. If you’re not adaptable, you’re not a top level player.”
  • On FA Cup ambitions: “We are of course ambitious. We’ve done it before, we know we can do it. It’s much more level at the start (against City). We know we have to be at our best to qualify (for the final).”
  • On Jack Wilshere’s injury: “Sad because Jack is a great football player, with a great football brain and his career has been stopped by injuries. Today at the top the most important thing is consistency. The game is of such intensity, it takes time to find the rhythm. Great career doesn’t stop and go. You have to be consistently present.”

Man City

  • Pep Guardiola has made it to the FA Cup semi-final in his first season in English football. Arsene Wenger went all the way and won it in his second season (but first full season) at Arsenal. Jose Mourinho didn’t make it this far until his second season with Chelsea. Alex Ferguson took four years to make it to his first FA Cup semi with Man United.
  • Guardiola has won the domestic cup twice before in both Germany and Spain. Both of his Copa del Rey victories in Spain were achieved by his Barcelona side beating Athletic Bilbao in the Final. In Germany, Pep’s Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund in both the 2014 and 2016 Finals.
  • Pep also has previous at Wembley. In 2011, Barcelona beat Man United 3-1 to lift their fourth European Cup/Champions League crown. As a player, Guardiola was part of the Barcelona team that won their first European Cup in 1992. Everton manager Ronald Koeman scored this free-kick to beat Sampdoria at the old Wembley.

How’s your form?

Arsenal

  • The Gunners secured just their second win in five matches by beating Middlesbrough on Monday night. We’ve also lost twice and drawn once (against City) since beating Lincoln in the quarter-final. The 3-0 win over West Ham is the only game in which we’ve kept a clean sheet since that 5-0 hammering of Lincoln. Arsenal have conceded just one goal in the Cup this season – in the third round win at Preston.
  • Last 5 (all comps): LDWLW
  • P: 31 W: 17 D: 6 L: 8 F: 63 A: 40 Pts: 57 Pos: 6th

Man City

  • City come in to the game off the back of a 3-0 win at Southampton last weekend. They’ve lost just two games domestically in 2017 – 4-0 at Everton and 2-1 at Chelsea. Their FA Cup run so far has consisted of big wins at West Ham and Crystal Palace, a replay victory over Huddersfield and a 2-0 quarter-final triumph at Middlesbrough. Like Arsenal, they have conceded just once in the Cup this season – that came in the 5-1 beating of Huddersfield.
  • Last 5: DDLWW
  • P: 32 W: 19 D: 7 L: 6 F: 63 A: 35 Pts: 64 Pos: 4th

Team News

Arsenal

  • David Ospina and Shkodran Mustafi are both out. Wenger said in his presser that he might continue with three at the back – so Gabriel, Koscielny and Holding? Or does Bellerin come in to that system?
  • Lucas Perez is also absent. Wenger said Jeff Reine-Adelaide is out for the rest of the season but, apart from that, there are no new injury worries.

Man City

  • Vincent Kompany could continue his return to the City team this weekend. He scored in the 3-0 win at Southampton last Saturday.
  • Gabriel Jesus is still out with a foot injury. Former Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna and German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan remain sidelined.

Head-to-Head

  • Arsenal and City have played each other almost 200 times before but their Cup meetings are few and far between. They’ve met just three times in the FA Cup.
  • This will be their first FA Cup clash since February 1971, when two goals from Charlie George secured a 2-1 win for Arsenal in the fifth round. Their first FA Cup meeting was a 2-0 Man City win in 1904.
  • This game will be a repeat of the 1932 FA Cup semi-final. Cliff Bastin scored the only goal as Arsenal won 1-0 at Villa Park. The other semi-final that season also featured Chelsea but they lost 2-1 to Newcastle. The Magpies would go on to beat Arsenal by the same scoreline in the Final.
  • Arsenal and City have met more frequently in the League Cup. They’ve played each other eight times in that competition – Arsenal have won five of these. Our most recent League Cup win against City came in 2004, Robin Van Persie and Daniel Karbasiyoon scored in a 2-1 victory.
  • City have won the two most recent League Cup ties with Arsenal – the last one coming in 2011 when a Sergio Aguero goal won the game at the Emirates.
  • Arsenal and City have met at Wembley before – and it wasn’t that long ago either! The Gunners beat City 3-0 to win the 2014 Community Shield Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud got the goals. City obviously couldn’t handle the chaos factor provided by Yaya Sanogo…
  • In total, this is the 29th time Arsenal have reached the FA Cup semi-finals, which is a record (Man United are on 28). Arsenal have won 19 and lost 9 of their previous semi-final appearances. Man City will be playing in their 13th semi-final. They have a much higher win percentage though, having won 10 of their 12 semis so far.
  • When Man City reached the 2011 FA Cup semi-final, it was their furthest they’d made it in the competition in 30 years. Arsenal featured in 11 semi-finals in that time.
  • Arsenal are the most successful and most recent winners out of the four FA Cup semi-finalists this season. The Gunners have 12 Cup wins (last in 2015), Man City have 5 (last in 2011), Chelsea have 7 (last in 2012) and Spurs have 8 (last in 1991).
  • Arsenal have won five of six matches they’ve played at the new Wembley – the only defeat being our first appearance there in the 2009 semi-final against Chelsea. Man City have won just three of their six games there – losing in the FA Cup to Wigan and in the Community Shield to both Man United and Arsenal.

That’s Interesting

  • This is the 11th time Arsene Wenger will lead Arsenal out in an FA Cup semi-final. He’s won 7 of his previous 10 appearances at this stage of the competition. Only Man United (twice) and Chelsea have beaten Wenger in a semi-final.
  • The 1999 semi-final against Man United is the only time we’ve gone to a replay at this stage under Wenger. Not too surprising when you realise that this was also the last ever FA Cup semi-final replay! Semis were decided by extra-time and penalties from the following season.
  • Since then, we’ve only gone to extra time twice in a semi-final. They were in our two most recent appearances! The 2014 clash with Wigan is the only one to go all the way to penalties.
  • In the 2005 semi-final, Arsenal beat Blackburn 3-0 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. This is the only semi-final we’ve played under Wenger that has been decided by more than one goal. Every other semi has either been a win or loss by a single goal or a draw.
  • It’ safe to say that Wenger is a bit of an expert when it comes to the FA Cup. Between 1998 and 2005, Arsenal failed to reach the semi-final stage just once – in the 1999-2000 season.
  • This will be the fourth FA Cup semi-final we’ve played at the new Wembley. Since Wenger has been at the club, we’ve played semis at Villa Park (four times), Old Trafford (three times) and the Millennium Stadium (once).
  • The 1991 FA Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Tottenham was the first to take place at Wembley. Two years later, both semi-finals were played at Wembley for the first time ever. Arsenal and Spurs met again in an FA Cup North London Derby, while the other semi was the Steel City Derby between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday.
  • This season sees three London sides in the semi-finals – the most capital representation since 2002 when Arsenal, Chelsea and Fulham contested the semis along with Middlesbrough.
  • Not Arsenal/City related but it’s always fun to have a laugh at Spurs, right? Have a read of this: Tottenham have played in six semi-finals since they last won the Cup in 1991 – and they’ve lost all six! Here’s a list of some teams that have made it to an FA Cup Final more recently than Spurs – Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth (twice, and they won it), Wigan (and they won it), Hull, Crystal Palace, Cardiff and Millwall. What do we think of Tottenham?
  • Theo Walcott is the only Englishman to have scored an FA Cup semi-final goal for us in the Wenger era. That came in the 2009 defeat to Chelsea. Liberian Christopher Wreh was the first man to score a semi-final goal for us under Wenger.
  • The 2002 semi-final against Middlesbrough is the only time Arsenal have benefit from an own goal at this stage of the competition. Italian defender Gianluca Festa was the unlucky scorer.

How about some goals?

And that’s that…

So there it is guys, everything you need to get revved up for the FA Cup semi-final. Kick off is at 3pm on Sunday. By then, we’ll know who we could face in the Final as Spurs/Chelsea is on Saturday. Our last chance of silverware for the season, let’s hope Wenger’s experience of the competition will stand to him against Guardiola. And if the players can’t get hyped up for an FA Cup semi-final, well…

I’m hopeful of a win. 2-1 Arsenal, I think. I really, really hope this isn’t the last FA Cup preview thread I have to put together this season!

I’ll be back in a few days to preview our mid-week PL clash with Leicester City.

Thanks for reading!

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