Records could fall on Saturday when we face Chelsea in the Emirates FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
Not only could we lift the trophy for the 13th time, putting us beyond Manchester United’s 12 wins, but Arsene Wenger could become the most successful manager in the competition’s history.
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But in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, the boss said that personal accolades are the least of his concerns.
on whether not being overwhelming favourites changes the approach…
Not much. The pressure was of course very high against Hull [in 2014] and Aston Villa [in 2015], but especially against Hull because we had not won a trophy for a while. This time we are not favourites, it’s quite even or maybe Chelsea are even ahead, so it’s a bit similar to what happened in the semi-final against Manchester City.
on being on verge of becoming the most successful manager in FA Cup history…
As I just said, I want to do it just to win the cup, because I think the team has redressed very well the situation on the sporting side. That will be a good crowning of what we have done in the last two months. The team has given so much, I think they really want to win something. On top of that, [if] I have some benefit as well, it’s OK, but that’s not my main worry.
on if he did break the record, he could hold it for a long time…
Maybe, I don’t know. It’s difficult to predict always what will happen in our game. We just spoke about losing two centre backs in one game. It’s very difficult to predict where football will go, what will happen in the next 20 years. Maybe we’ll have a robot on the bench who will make the decisions and the computer will analyse exactly what decisions he makes during the game. You might not even have human beings on the bench anymore.
on massive differences if you win or lose the cup final…
That’s part of what makes it all exciting as well. You have to accept that when you go into competition you can win, lose or draw. That makes football great, that’s why people follow that, because of the intensity, of the emotions involved in it as well.
More polls coming this summer...
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