Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes English Premier League (EPL) sides can no longer expect favourable results in the FA Cup by playing youth-team players against Championship teams. The French tactician made these comments prior to the FA Cup tie against Burnley.
As Arsenal lost to Chelsea in their previous EPL outing, Wenger said he does not want to lose the FA cup tie against Burnley, which they ultimately went on to win.
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"We want to do well in the FA Cup and you don't want to miss an opportunity when you play at home against a Championship team and you don't win with kids any more unfortunately against the Championship teams. That's it," Wenger was quoted as saying by goal.com on Saturday.
The Frenchman added that he would field a full-strength side against the Championship side. Notably, Wenger fielded a relatively experienced XI, with David Ospina replacing Petr Cech between the posts and 19-year-old Alex Iwobi was the only player who can be termed as a ‘kid’. Francis Coquelin and Tomas Rosicky returned from long-term injuries and Mohamed Elneny also made his debut.
"I will play quite an experienced team," he said. "First of all, we lost last Sunday against Chelsea and it is important not to drop our confidence level too much."
"We have learnt something this season, we went to Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup and got quite a severe defeat. We have to show we have learnt from that," he added.
