ARSENAL, the FA Cup holders, progress but Sunderland, even without Jermain Defoe, gave them quite a game.
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Jeremain Lens struck inside the box to hand the Black Cats the lead in north London in the 17th minute, but Joel Campbell levelled shortly after with a neat half-volley.
When asked if he believes Arsene Wenger’s men can do the double, the Spaniard said: “That is the goal of the whole team”.
Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is pushing for more opportunities at the club after making his debut during the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal in the FA Cup at the weekend.
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“The manager wanted to see me in a game and how I dealt with the pressure”, said Pickford.
“Obviously when I was younger, I was coming to the away games like them”. Look at his defensive and offensive numbers.
Wenger has lifted the FA Cup a record-equalling six times and is hungry to complete a hat-trick of wins having won the trophy in 2014 and 2015. “We have done it twice”.
But his side were still too strong for a Sunderland team also much-changed from their last league outing and full-back Bellerin, who set up goals for Ramsey and Giroud in an impressive display, feels there is enough quality in the Arsenal squad to fight on more than one front.
“We love this competition and the fans love this competition so we need to try and do our best”.
“In the first half we went one down and we had to find our way because we were sharp in midfield”.
Mannone was on the bench against his former club Arsenal, but Big Sam confirmed afterwards that the Italian would return to the side for the midweek trip to Swansea City after his heroics in the league win against Aston Villa 10 days ago.
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The first of many outings, we hope, and it’s good to see a young player take his chance so well. “We had the game in the balance”, but he remains incensed how the Premier League has made his side play on Wednesday rather than Tuesday.
