Arsenal will be huge favourites to beat Championship strugglers Reading in today’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley – a big chance of making the final for the second year running lies in wait for Arsene Wenger’s side, who will fancy their chances of making it another successful year of taking home some silverware.
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And yet, you just never know with Arsenal, do you? Here’s five ways the Gunners could perform the ultimate bottling job in this evening’s game…
1) Szczesny howlers
Wojciech Szczesny is set to return in goal for Arsenal this afternoon after being relegated to the bench for Premier League matches, but made the first-choice cup goalkeeper for the Gunners. This policy is a confusing one, but it served the club well last season as Lukasz Fabianski filled in for his fellow Pole for Arsene Wenger’s side as they took home the trophy.
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2) Giroud off-day
As he did in the Champions League first leg defeat to AS Monaco, Olivier Giroud is capable of having some real stinkers in front of goal. Although the Frenchman has generally been in fine goalscoring form this season, particularly since that loss to Monaco at the Emirates Stadium, you never know if he might be found wanting again in this big game.
3) Mertesacker caught out
Another who performed poorly in the Monaco game, Per Mertesacker can sometimes struggle with pacey players, particularly when Arsenal are in control of the ball, committing a lot of players forward and leaving space in behind for the German centre-back to be exposed. Although he’s a top player on his day, this might not be the best kind of game that suits him.
4) Overplaying
Although Arsenal have some great technical players like Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla, they are sometimes a victim of their own talent in that aspect, with many of their attacking midfielders more suited to passing than to actually making runs into the box. A team full of playmakers can end up over doing it a bit, and Arsenal have sometimes messed up easy games for trying to walk the ball into the net and score the perfect goal, which will no doubt be a temptation against low quality opposition today.
5) General complacency
Another aspect of Arsenal under Wenger that cannot be ignored – they have always been a little complacent. Even Arsenal’s best teams messed up some easy games and arguably didn’t win as many trophies as they should’ve, never managing to retain a Premier League title and blowing some comfortable leads. They may be on a great winning streak at the moment, but that could play into their heads as they face a team languishing near the bottom of the Championship table – they mustn’t convince themselves it’ll be an easy win.