Old Trafford jinx will not hamper Arsenal – Arsène Wenger

FA Cup Sixth Round
Manchester United v Arsenal
Old Trafford, 7.45
BBC 1

Arsène Wenger believes that Arsenal can put one hand back on the FA Cup with victory at Manchester United on Monday night, and he has no fears over the quarter-final tie or his club's dreadful recent record at Old Trafford.

Wenger's cup holders have drawn one and lost nine of their previous 10 visits to United – their last victory came in the Premier League in September 2006, when Emmanuel Adebayor scored the only goal of the game.

But the manager says that his team have reason for encouragement, principally in terms of their away form in general and the manner in which they have stabilised after an erratic first-half to the season.

Frustration

Since the loss at Stoke City on December 6th, which triggered one of those outpouring of frustration and fury which have become a part of the Arsenal Experience, they have won 14 of 18 games in all competitions. Wenger has attributed the indifferent form in the early months to a hang-over for some of his players from the World Cup.

“The cup tie against United is of special intensity because it is between two teams who have a chance to win this competition,” Wenger said. “Both teams will think: ‘If we get over this hurdle, we have a good opportunity to win the competition.’

“I don’t believe too much in history. I just believe in the performance on the day. At the moment, we are doing very well away from home. The size of the pitch is exactly the same everywhere, it’s just down to how much we turn up and how much effort we put in to win the game.

“We are confident from our Premier League run [seven wins in eight]. We feel we have the needed confidence. We go to there to qualify and to give absolutely everything. That’s the target of the day – hard work, team effort and to give absolutely everything. We will go there to try to qualify, no matter how.”

Wenger said that Wojciech Szczezsny would start in goal, if he recovers from a virus and it stands to be a chance for the goalkeeper to reassert his credentials, having lost his place in the Premier League to David Ospina.

It also feels like an opportunity for Mesut Ozil to stamp his authority on a big game and answer the critics who believe that he decorates rather than designs games. Paul Scholes, the former United midfielder, has accused Ozil of taking the "easy option" in signing for Arsenal and, also, of "going through the motions."

‘Great player’

“That’s a wrong statement,” Wenger said. “Ozil works very hard and he’s a great player. I think a player like Paul Scholes would have loved to play with Mesut Ozil.

“Ozil has a point to prove and he knows that. We are all in a job where, in every single game, we have to prove a point. I believe he has the quality, he puts a lot of effort in to help the team and he works much harder than his style shows.

“You can be cheated a little bit by his style of play, because he is fluent, easy, supple and he does not look like he puts the effort in, but he does.

“I knew he had a good physical potential, but did not know how good he was physically. He has a huge physical potential,” he said. Guardian Service