Do Arsenal care what LVG says about FA cup? Who is REALLY favourite?

Arsenal fans will be hoping that the Championship club Bolton Wanderers can do us a favour tonight by knocking Brendan Rodgers and his Liverpool side out of the FA cup. It is certainly a more likely upset than the one we were hoping for last night, because Bolton are a bigger team and in a higher league than Cambridge United and they are also at home.

If Liverpool do get through, however, they will join Arsenal and Manchester United as the three big clubs still in the competition and the three big favourites to win the trophy, but they will be faced with the toughest tie in the next round, away to Crystal Palace. And that would be one of three all Premier League ties, opening up the road to Wembley nicely.

But the United manager Louis van Gaal seems to think that it is them rather than defending champions Arsenal who should be seen as the favourites, mainly because they are the highest placed league team left in the competition. Also, as a report in The Telegraph shows, the Dutchman seems to think that his record of always winning a trophy in his first season with a club means that his name is on the famous old trophy.

LVG said, “We have a real chance now,” Van Gaal said. “Why? We are the highest qualified team in the FA Cup, our status is the highest club, so people are maybe betting on us.

“I am not allowed to, but I give you a tip.

“I am not a casino man, but of course I think the highest qualified teams have more possibilities to win than lower qualified teams.

“That is why everyone was in favour of Cambridge tonight. But Arsenal is still in the cup and they are also a very high competitor. Liverpool is also there and will fight against Bolton (in Wednesday’s replay).

“For me, personally, I won always a title in my first year everywhere where I worked and the chance I will win the title is bigger in the FA Cup than the Premier League.”

I am not so sure about that Louis. Scraping past a League One and a League Two side so far has not convinced me. I think the fact that United have struggled away from home could give them problems at Preston. And I also feel confident that we are the better team right now and should be favourites. The bookies tend to agree, although it is a close run thing, with the Gunners at 5/2 and United at 3/1. What do you think?

Tags Man United Van Gaal

49 Comments

  1. Honestly, hard to say. It depends by the time May comes where we are in the table and how far we are (or have gotten) in the CL.

    Our squad is finally coming together from injuries, but you got to say Utd will have more time to prepare and less obligations all around.

    I will say though, Arsenal are favorites simply because Im a gooner!

      1. something tells me liverpool are the ones to fear for this trophy.
        us versus them will decide who takes it.

        1. @muffdiver
          They took it against a 10 man Championship side. Bolton had em on the ropes til that red card…

          1. very true…remind me what happened last year with us against wigan…
            means nothing bro, if we play them it will go to the wire…

    1. I don’t think it’s that hard to call honestly. I think we’re significantly better than them, and if people (LVG included) use the current table as reason to suggest otherwise you’re talking mince. “But they beat us already this year”, that’s great but what does that have to do with winning the FA cup? Who says we’ll even face them?

      United could be 5th in two weeks time, then what? The league table is changing week on week, only constants are the fact we finished above them last year and we won the tournament LVG thinks they’re favourites for.

      All this coming after the “worst” team in the competition took them to a replay. Cheers LVG but I’d wind your neck in a little until you produce some results that are in some way impressive. De Gea won’t be man of the match every game, so the cracks that are being papered over will reveal themselves soon enough.

      1. I would say we are favourites, but remember that we basically cannot beat man united so if we draw them then they will be favourites!!!

        1. Stop living in fantasy! Why can’t we beat Man U? Is that the 11th commandment? How many times has Arsenal ever beaten Man U? For those of you who didn’t know it we beat Man U in 2005 to lift the FA trophy which has been our last trophy until we won it again last year. This is not to mention the number of times we beat them in EPL, THE most notable being when Adebayor scored the only goal at Old Trafford either in 2007 or 2008. It is only recently that we haven’t been beating Man U. So stop using your lack of knowledge to make illogical conclusions. If you truly a gooner you should be embarrassed about holding such views; if you are a Man U fan be ready for Arsenal’s fire this time!

  2. That man is far from being in touch with reality. I think he’s just trying to play some silly mind games from now ( who do you think mou learnt it from?) to the gunners team lets just keep working hard and I’m sure we can defend our FA cup even and even get good shots at d league and UCL provided our players keep growing from strenght to strenght, very few injury cases and luck falls on our side. and anoda tin I really want us to thrash that silly united in their ancient trafford

    1. LVG is playing mind games frankly I don’t think he is doing a better job than David M did last year, when you look at all the factors he has just 3 points more than David M. Had at this point last season and spent 150m to improve his team. He is underachieving so we shouldn’t expect any better.

      1. I won t agree, They are building something special again. We all wanted their downfall but Lvg likes to build one for the future and he is doing that. Di Maria has not fully settled in and once he is settled he will be a deadly player. Blind and Rojo are doing a decent job and by looks of things they will turn into a typical United players who knows how to perform in big games.

        I will again say we getting overconfident and underestimating our opponents. Let us stay grounded

  3. We’re really due giving United the beating of their lives. It’s been long overdue. We need to humiliate, break and overwhelm them. Something like 5-0 or 6-0 right at Old Trafford. I don’t care if we beat City and Spurs… we have old, in fact, very old scores to settle with United.

    1. I wont be too confident. Dont forget we were the only big team that couldnt beat Moyes’s United. SO what makes you think we can beat united on their turf. One game at a time mate. My next focus is let us get past monaco, that will be a great thing. Its been long since we played a quarterfinal game in european competition. One game at a time.

  4. I really dont give a damn what LVG says or do, lets keep on doing our talking on the pitch, and i personally will love it for the “gunners” to repeat as fa cup winners! Coyg!

    1. if the quotes in this article are accurate, then what LVG said isn’t an indictment on him considering united more of a favorite than arsenal, per se. he just listed the standings as they are currently, and said that he’s got more hope of winning the FA cup than the prem. i’d say that’s actually true. what isn’t true, is that they will indeed win it. and as far as i’m concerned, being the defending champs gives us the best odds to retain the cup. lvg can’t be faulted for believing united will win, of course. but hopefully we smack united around in the process of winning it, while showing them what it’s about in the prem, too. our track record against them has been dismal for a while now, but the hell if i won’t sit there biting my nails hoping for dear life that we do em nicely. COYG!!!

  5. Sorry. I want us to beat utd twice in May…at old trafford and wembley. Its about time
    Oh, and Chelsea in the Champions league final and this month as well. We owe Mourinho a hiding.

  6. we still unable to beat a pathetic rvp utd side last season and a very weak defence De Gea utd this season…

    1. exactly. People may be thumbing you down but you’re right. I’m really hoping the City match wasn’t a 1 off. Our record against United is absolutely disgraceful, and I really do fear drawing them. No matter how poor they are we seem to do worse that day.

      1. don’t forget that we tied em at home earlier this season, too. rather than being scarred pussy cats, why don’t we believe that the center of the pitch has finally been addressed with someone that is capable of putting in the shift needed to beat both these teams. that’s not to say we can’t do better, but it’s one hell of a lot better than it has been. and that has proven very effective as of late.

  7. I would really like us to draw man u and get extreme pleasure by knocking them out the fa cup, and shutting up LVG’s big mouth and ego in the process! Coyg

  8. I really did not see any problem with what he said.He is right, the highest qualified teams have more possibilities to win than lower qualified teams.Now that City, Chelsea, Southampton are out of the competition the remaining big teams are Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool.And the three of them are favourite to win the cup.And who knows unexpected team might win the cup, after all this is football asanything can happen.

  9. lets beat utd first then we talk……they have one of the best keepers in the world that single handedly save them numerous times…

    1. but can he sneak in cigarettes into an oppositions locker room like Woj? I don’t think so…

    2. that keeper would absolutely have been a player you would have indicted as utter crap before this season. especially if he was on the arsenal. keep that in mind when you sing his praises. we too have players that are coming good.

    1. van persie on the pitch staring at giroud lifting the trophy while doing the stick your tongue out thing…rvp thinking “motherf*cker”

          1. Yeah but why would he bother if giroud wins the fa cup twice or twenty times. Win something that he has not won and that is champions league. Honestly I think it is us fans who is more obsessed with RVP, he doesn’t even give a rat’s ass about us so why should we.

  10. I would prefer arsenal to be underdog than be favorites. Looking at Van Gaal’s logic he is right, they are favourites and I have a feeling they will be more motivated than us. After the 5-0 victory all the attention are at us and thats a bit dangerous. I am not saying arsenal cannot handle the pressure but l will prefer to stay grounded. Dont forget just one month ago we were also struggling and liverpool are also coming to form with sturridge returning. I wont mind if we just focus on top 4 ( our primary trophy) and get it done with that.

    1. agree with you until the end. Stop lowering your expectations. If we only get 4th place trophy again this season it is 100% a failure season. We got Alexis this year and end up in the same position as last season? That’s not acceptable and thats why I’m no Wenger praiser. You think Sanchez will be happy with 4th place? He’ll be off next season if we dont keep challenging for silverware. We may be in form at the moment, but look at the table, and it doesnt lie. Arsenal should be winning trophies every season like we used to, like we’re capable of doing. Wenger only woke up from his nap last month, and our only realistic trophy chance is FA Cup. It’s ours, lets retain it.

      1. Dont take me as a pessimistic but last 8 years of experience have not been that good buddy. I have always seen our fans thinking far too ahead of ourselves. We are still 5th so we have to first and most importantly get to the 4th spot and I dont think that will be easy. We should not take that for granted. And winning just a FA cup will also not be that a big success as we won FA cup without Sanchez and we are winning FA cup again. But yes Fa cup will be great but with our past experience we shouldnt be over confident

        1. god, i hate that no one cares about a historically great trophy. the fa cup is meaningful. it’s a rare cup that allows all the english professional teams to have a hand at winning it. football is great because of the relegation system. that’s what allows competition to thrive. and this cup allows teams that were once relevant to still have a shot of being relevant in the moment. it’s an elimination cup, no group stage, so, yes, anyone on any given day can win. that’s competition at its best. i do hope people start to appreciate it again. but i suppose the fact that the prem has gone global has had a decidedly strong hand in diminishing the value attributed to this particular competition.

    2. Well we ought to be more motivated than them, because we hold the trophy! Back to back FA cups is not a common thing, our players should be determined not to let them or anyone else take it away from us.

  11. Don’t care who’s favourite, so long as our name is on the FA Cup for a record 12th time in May.

  12. After the next round we will learn who is in it for real. Scrapping, luck, domination it doesn’t matter…get to the final and see who’s best.

    We went 2-0 and with everyone saying…another year without a trophy for Arsenal.
    3-2 Wenger with his arms in the air, and another title under his belt. Experience is key, and last year we gained a lot of that!

  13. I am not trying to undermine our recent efforts and wins but we have to take one game at a time. There is still a long way to go, let us not get over confident. Let us beat spuds at their turf and then beat Chelsea at their turf and beat united at their turf. But this can only happen if we are consistent. I am sorry but experience of last 8 years makes me nervous. Last season same thing happened, we were in tittle race but then everything fell apart and then we were fighting for top 4. One month of good or great football will not make my fears run away. Comments like Giroud is a better striker or Carazola ( who I like a lot) is better than Silva or Oscar will not help us. Let us stay grounded and win big games on consistent basis and try to go as far as possible in Champions league.

  14. stop being so stupid. well see what happens but plz don’t get carried away and concentrate on spuds first

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