Arsene Wenger has warned his Arsenal stars to heed the lessons of last season’s narrow escape at Wembley when the holders face Reading in the FA Cup semi-finals in London today.
Wenger’s side head back to Wembley as firm favorites to see off the Championship strugglers and advance to a second successive FA Cup final.
Arsenal have risen to second in the English Premier League after reeling off eight consecutive victories, a powerful run that has stretched to 11 wins from 12 games in all competitions.
Photo: AFP
By contrast, Reading, languishing 18th in the second tier, are not mathematically certain of avoiding relegation to League One following a miserable run of one win in their past 10 matches.
The Royals have failed to win any of their five matches since beating Bradford City in an FA Cup quarter-final replay, but Wenger has been scarred by several of Arsenal’s recent encounters with lower-league teams and is determined to ensure the Gunners do not underestimate Steve Clarke’s men.
To drive home the point, he recalled last season’s FA Cup semi-final against second-tier Wigan Athletic, in which Arsenal fell behind and only equalized in the 82nd minute, before eventually securing a barely-deserved victory in a penalty shoot-out.
“We know that it [the semi-final] is always tricky. We have learned from Wigan last year,” Wenger said. “The urgency level will be quite high in our team. Reading have many players who have the experience in the Premier League. They have a very efficient style, who go a lot for crosses, so for us they can be a danger going forward.”
Wenger has a near full-strength side to choose from today, with England midfielder Jack Wilshere having returned to full fitness.
“Everybody feels that it is difficult to get in the team, all the players have top, top quality,” Wenger said. “They have to accept it and to respect the decision, that is what you want from the players.”
However, although everything has been going swimmingly for Arsenal of late, Wenger was in a rather irritable mood in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Reading tie.
He was especially irked by questions about Juergen Klopp, the Borussia Dortmund coach who has been linked with Wenger’s job in the past and is set to leave the German club at the end of the season.
“I’m not an agency to place managers, and I like every manager and respect everybody, but I find that circus a bit ridiculous,” Wenger said.
Asked whether Klopp, reported to be a potential Manchester City target, would suit Arsenal in the future, Wenger snapped: “I already answered this question.”
Wenger was also vexed by the decision to schedule Chelsea’s crucial English Premier League clash with Manchester United at almost the same time as his club’s meeting with Reading.
“I am a bit surprised that a [Premier League] game of the same stature is played at the same time. There is a bit of conflict there that is difficult to understand,” Wenger said. “Something should be done about it. You would like it [the FA Cup] to be the unique competition, especially a semi-final and a final. You would want it not to conflict with other competitions.”
While Arsenal’s internationals can afford to take a semi-final in their stride, it may be slightly harder for Reading’s journeymen to avoid being star-struck on the big stage.
It has been 88 years since the Royals last reached the FA Cup semi-finals and they have never appeared in the final, but former West Bromwich Albion boss Clarke, who won the FA Cup as a Chelsea player, said: “You can’t go to Wembley and play the occasion.”
“The supporters can go and enjoy the day, that’s their little reward for a Cup run,” he said. “For us, it is to go there with a mentality that we are there to do a job and if we do that right we can go through.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but