Arsène Wenger has admitted he is concerned about facing Sutton United on the National League side's artificial 3G pitch and warned his Arsenal players not to take the fifth-round tie lightly in a week in which he has come out fighting over increased scrutiny of his position.
Arsenal, 12 times the FA Cup winners, travel to Gander Green Lane this evening in their first match since the devastating 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie to face Sutton, who have beaten Colchester United, Cheltenham Town, AFC Wimbledon and Leeds United to reach this stage of the competition.
Wenger, 67, hinted over the weekend that he intends to follow Alex Ferguson in managing into his 70s despite intense speculation that he could finally be ready to leave the post he has held for more than 20 years after the defeat by Bayern.
Playing surface
But the Frenchman said he is more immediately concerned about how to combat Sutton’s artificial playing surface.
“Firstly, the pitch,” said Wenger when asked what are the biggest dangers facing his team. “Ideally we would like to play on a normal pitch. But it has been accepted so . . . competition is also about dealing with what you face. We face an artificial pitch and we have to deal with it.”
Arsenal have practised on a 3G pitch at their London Colney training ground this week, although Wenger believes they will face a different challenge.
“It’s not the same because it’s a dry pitch and I’ve heard that Sutton have a wet pitch, they water it before the game so it’ll be much quicker,” he said. “It means the weight on the joints is stronger, you cannot glide, you have to block every time so it makes football a bit different because the ball comes to you and somebody accelerates and doesn’t slow down like in a normal game so you have to get used to the difference in speed.”
Return frominjury
Danny Welbeck
has confirmed he will not feature in the tie against Sutton as he continues his return from injury, due to fears over the pitch. The
England
striker played for Arsenal’s under-23 side on Sunday but admitted he did not want to risk himself on the unusual surface. “Glad to get 70 minutes today to build up my match fitness. Plastic pitch at Sutton isn’t the best idea at the moment,” he tweeted.
– Guardian service
