Arsene Wenger will not be preoccupied by his last two visits to Wembley this Saturday - because he has good memories of the stadium.
Arsenal have lost both of their games at the home of English football since it reopened in 2007, going down 2-1 to Chelsea in the 2009 FA Cup semi-final and by the same scoreline to Birmingham City in the 2011 League Cup final.
But Wenger enjoyed success at Wembley before the old stadium was demolished in 2003, completing his first league and cup double there against Newcastle United in 1998. And he hopes to channel that positivity into his players when they face Wigan Athletic.
"We have many players who are 28, 29 and 30 years old - they have experience, they know what is at stake"
"We have good memories of Wembley as well [as the defeats] and that is what we want to renew," said Wenger.
"What is important is that the size of the pitch is exactly the same and I don’t think that the environment plays a big part in that. What is important is that we turn up and respond well to our disappointing performance on Sunday [at Everton]. We will be focused to renew the happy memories."
Wojciech Szczesny said earlier this week that Arsenal have matured since that shock defeat to Birmingham and his manager agrees.
"We have many players who are 28, 29 and 30 years old - they have experience, they know what is at stake," said Wenger.
"[I expect] everyone to contribute. We have a lot of experience, and we are in a semi-final because we have produced great performances.
"We have played great games against Tottenham, Everton, Liverpool. They are not average teams, we have produced great performances and that's what we want to do again in the semi-final of the FA Cup."
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