Ahead of this weekend’s home tie with Sunderland, Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin has spoken of the desire of the club’s players to win the FA Cup for a third consecutive time.
The Frenchman, who is still out with a knee injury suffered against West Brom in November, said that the club are desperate to win more silverware this season and says the FA Cup is special to him as it was the first major honour he won at Arsenal.
It was my first major trophy with the club so I don’t want to sleep on this. I’m still hungry, even hungrier, and I want more, like everyone else at the club. The players are really stepping up and really want this silverware.
The 24-year-old also said that once the competition starts again, the players will remember the past two successes and will be keen to ensure that they win the competition again.
It was a great moment but you need a little bit of the magic of the FA Cup to come back before the memories come back. When it does start, people will be looking at the pictures of themselves with the trophies and thinking that we need to hold it for a third time.
There has been some talk that Sunderland may rest players at the weekend as they focus on staying in the Premier League, but Coquelin believes that the game will be a tough one as the Black Cats aim for an upset.
What is nice is that the first round of the competition is at home and that’s great for the fans. It’s always going to be tough against Sunderland. They gave us a difficult game a couple of weeks ago, so we know it will be tough. They’re going to want to beat the champions as well, so they will be really, really motivated and beating us could give them a boost in their season as well. Everyone will be prepared for it. I don’t know if anyone’s ever held the FA Cup three times in a row before but it would mean something big for the club. We want to win any trophy so if we can get this one, we will.
Comments.
Loading comments…