Cup offers Wenger chance for turnaround in fortunes
Arsene Wenger has a special relationship with the FA Cup having won the trophy four times as Arsenal manager and you get the feeling that his next victory could be a defining moment in the club’s history.
With the north London team having gone a staggering nine-years without a trophy - the last piece of silverware coming back in 2005 when they beat Manchester United to win the FA Cup on penalties - the Arsenal manager is desperate to see his side end their barren spell.
The fact that Arsenal’s chances of winning a trophy this season depend solely on the FA Cup shows where the club stand having seen their title hopes disappear in the last month.
Crushing defeats against Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton have seen them fall ten points behind leaders Liverpool.
Wenger has not been helped by a crippling injury list which has seen key players such as Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Laurent Koscielny and Theo Walcott miss a large part of the season.
With uncertainty surrounding his own future at the club, Wenger will be desperate to see his side finish in the top four once again and secure their first major trophy so he can finally put pen to paper on his new contract.
Arsenal are the strong favourites to beat Wigan in the FA semi-final on Saturday at Wembley and the Arsenal manager says he is giving everything to ensure they reach the final and lift the famous trophy on May 17.
Wenger said: “Don’t imagine I sacrifice every day of my life not to win a trophy. Everybody fights for that.
“We are back at Wembley and it's great. It's an important competition. You know we will not fight for the championship any more so it's the only competition.
“We all play to win something. If you are in the FA Cup everyone can dream of winning it at the start of the season. The Championship - only seven clubs can dream of winning it at the start of the season. It is a dream open to everybody and that is the beauty of the FA Cup.
“Last year Wigan won it, this year you have Sheffield United in the semi final and that kind of dream open to everybody makes the competition special.
“In the Championship you can talk and talk but we know the biggest budgets will win it, that open dream is what makes this competition special in football.”
Wenger has always had a special affection for the FA Cup having watched it as a youngster growing up in the small French village of Duttlenheim.
The 64-year-old has had to watch with envy over the last nine-years as other clubs including Saturday’s opponents Wigan have gone onto to win the competition.
But he now feels the time is right for Arsenal to get back challenging for major honours and hopes this will be the springboard for the club to compete with the big guns once again.
Wenger added: “It was a dream when I was a kid to watch the FA Cup. It was one of the competitions you could watch in black and white on television.
“What stays in my memory is exactly the place where I sat at school , because we had to pay one franc to watch. What struck me at the time was the ball was white and the pitch was perfect, because I played in a village where the pitch was a disaster.
“The players had their hair well combed, and the managers were relaxed at that time - they joked together on the bench. That always struck me.
“For us what is very important is to win the semi-final and it's important we focus on that. They have beaten Manchester City at home so we want to focus on that and make sure we can go through. We respect Wigan highly for what they have done and the best way to go to the final is to do that.”
Wenger insists his priority will be to keep the Arsenal team together at the end of the season and says they will not need a major overhaul of the squad during the summer.
Even though they smashed their transfer record to sign Mesut Ozil last summer, the club have failed to maintain their position at the top of the table.
But despite their failure to compete for the title, Wenger is adamant he can keep his best players at the club.
Wenger said: "Our main task will be to keep the team together and see what went wrong.
"We have lost a bit of confidence and you could see that against Everton. We were 17 times leader in the league and dropped off when we lost our players at the important moment of the season. That's what we don't want to repeat.”
Wenger confirmed that Ramsey will start his first game for the club since St Stephen's Day and is hoping that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will recover from a groin injury to play at Wembley, but Tomas Rosicky and Kieran Gibbs are rated doubts for the game while Ozil, Koscielny,Wilshere and Walcott are definitely ruled out.
