It seemed inevitable that we'd get Chelsea in today's
FA Cup quarter-final draw.
The only surprise is that
we're at home.
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Watford vs Fulham OR Burnley
Southampton vs Wolves
Sheffield Utd vs Leeds Utd
The matches will be played on the weekend of March 8th.
We have a sneaky feeling that our game might be picked for
telly which, together with the fact that we've got a Champions League game on the Tuesday following (home to Roma, penultimate match of the second phase), suggests strongly that we'll be
looking at another Saturday lunchtime kick-off.
Whatever they say, Chelsea cannot be happy with this draw. After their win yesterday, Graham Le Saux said that they'd rather not have to play us at all, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselaink said that the main thing was to get a home draw. But their boss Claudio Ranieri tempted fate by saying "Why not? sooner or later we have
to win against Arsenal".
They haven't beaten us in the FA Cup since 1947, and have managed only one win over us in the last 5 years. But they're
seldom easy to beat, and since Arsenal may well be resting players for Europe again, we'd be fools to get too confident
over this one.
Rupe adds...
Arsene Wenger has already been quoted as saying that he'll probably have to rest players from the Chelsea game, with the match against Roma in mind....
"I think I will have to. [But] I want always to keep a good balance in the team and win the game. If you rest players and lose the game all the players feel tired.
We want to win what we can. We are not in a situation where we can choose. Maybe we will be happy to be in the FA Cup in two weeks' time." Not happy now, then? Saturday's win seemed a
pretty positive result at the time! :-)
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