#FACup 5th Round - Arsenal v Liverpool... can we play you every week?

When the 5th round draw was made, I like probably many of you was a little deflated. If I remember rightly we came out of the hat shortly after Man City had drawn Chelsea. One less of those two to worry about is always helpful in the Cup, especially when it means that Mourinho & Co get dumped out of the thing. But then to immediately get drawn away to Arsenal.... well it took the edge off.

If I'm honest I immediately thought that was that.. I didn't hold out much hope for our progression, but then when it comes to Liverpool FC I am usually a pessimist.

However, that was then and this is now. Since we beat Bournemouth, pretty unconvincingly, in the last  round.. well we haven't done bad at all. The Kolo-wobble at West Brom aside, we eviscerated Everton and put in the most astonishing first 20 minutes of football I have ever seen against Arsenal.

Another Kolo-wobble in the week, but more importantly a win this time and suddenly the Cup seems less significant. There was a gap forming between us and the top 3 and it looked as though the season was going to turn into a straight race for fourth with Everton and Spurs.

Four points off the top in February (been a while since we could say that) and we're starting to speculate/fantasise about winning the league again.

Now we have a little break from all that and our attention turns back to the Cup.

As if you needed reminding how great the FA Cup is.

The FA Cup does not hold the pull that it used to.. and this is something that should be looked at. It is entirely due to the Champions League. Finishing fourth is now somehow better than winning a Cup.. and not just a Cup, THE Cup.

Certainly in terms of financial stability and your ability to attract the top signings you need regular Champions League football, but let's for a moment look at our opponents on Sunday.

Arsenal - as the media delights in reminding us - have qualified for the Champions League every year since whenever it was and this is highly impressive (according to Andy Townsend). However, during this long and illustrious history then have reached the final once in 2006 and the best they have managed other than that is the Quarter Finals when they have to eventually play someone who knows what they are doing.

You've gotta love a nice shiny Cup.

Arsenal have also not won anything since they mugged Man Utd in the 2005 FA Cup.. that one was nearly as funny as when we mugged Arsenal in 2001 with a little help from Stephane Henchoz and that incredibly dull chap who does the commentary now on BT Sport.

The point being whilst modern football is increasingly about balance sheets, it shouldn't be.. Football should be about what it has always been about. Winning shiny cups.

So you can compare the two.. Do you want to finish fourth or win the Cup? And from a pragmatic point of view it is more beneficial to finish fourth. But specifically in terms of our season, well let's look at what is achievable.

No.. I'm a little teapot. 

If we can get through this round.. the prospects of this happening have improved after last Saturday. I cannot
imagine the Mertesacker / Koscielny partership has been sleeping too soundly in their presumably separate beds at the prospect of facing the SASASAS on Sunday.

As I mentioned only one of City or Chelsea will progress.. along with presumably the eviscerated Everton and maybe Southampton from the realistic end of the Premier League. It starts to open up doesn't it.

A point that should also be made is that we have benefited from not playing in Europe this season.. and whilst it has helped our focus in the league, form and momentum is not something that you can turn on and off like a tap.

Imagine what a win at the Emirates would do for confidence and morale in a squad that doesn't seem to be too lacking in that department. And I think we can handle the rigours of an extended cup run, after all with a bit of luck we could be talking four games here. If we cannot handle that then we probably aren't going cope too well if we do actually get back in the Champions League next season.