Sutton United boss Paul Doswell admits his side have no chance if Arsenal play Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil

James Benge17 February 2017

Sutton United manager Paul Doswell admits his side will almost certainly “lose comfortably” if Arsenal field Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in their FA Cup fifth round tie on Monday.

National League side Sutton host one of the country’s most formidable sides at Gander Green Lane next week hoping to pull off an upset that would rank among the greatest in FA Cup history.

Arsenal travel to South London with the FA Cup almost certainly their final hope of silverware after a disastrous run of games that has taken them 10 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea and facing a Champions League exit after a 5-1 humiliation at Bayern Munich.

But Doswell did not offer an optimistic assessment of Sutton’s chances of a giant killing, claiming that the non-League side’s only hope of victory was if Gunners boss Arsene Wenger took them for granted and named a weakened side.

"There's two ways of looking at it. You either get the likes of Ozil and Sanchez and Giroud -- and you can just keep naming them -- in which case we would lose the game comfortably but the lads would get the experience of having played a Premier League giant," said Doswell.

"If you see Ozil and Sanchez on the team sheet our chance doesn’t come beyond nought. Or you go the other way and you play a team of under-23s that are still interntionals mixed in with one or two of their squad players, and that gives us that one percent chance that we'd be after."

Sutton United in training ahead of Arsenal FA Cup tie

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Asked by Standard Sport whether Wenger needed to play his strongest side for a decisive match in Arsenal’s season Doswell added: “If he plays the team who beat Southampton 5-0 [in the fourth round] – and I’m a massive Southampton fan – then that would hammer us.

“Our only chance is if he puts out an under-23, reserve side because National League sides can compete against academy players and we’d have a real chance.”

Doswell’s squad includes four former Arsenal youth products – most notably Theo Walcott’s former team-mate Craig Eastmond – and several other Sutton players are Gunners fans.

Sutton could earn up to £700,000 for their passage to the fifth round of the Cup but missed out on a money-spinning tie at the 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium. Doswell is targeting a replay at the ground, not least so that his squad can have a day to remember.

“The best result for the players would be a 0-0 -- for you lot probably a 3-3 or 2-2,” he added. “If we were to get a draw and we could get back to the Emirates it would be one of the biggest results in the cup's history. Half the team support Arsenal, the chance for them to have a great day out would be their preferred result.”

In Pictures | Bayern Munich vs Arsenal | 15/02/2017

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A draw would send Wenger spiralling deeper into crisis, though Doswell, who will hand the Arsenal boss a £300 bottle of wine when he meets him on Monday, feels that many of the Frenchman’s critics have gone overboard.

"Wenger is getting criticised - and I think wrongly - that he doesn't have enough leaders in the dressing room, but he has still managed to qualify for the Champions League for the last 15 years," Doswell added.

"I would rather be in Arsenal's position than Manchester United's, who are playing in the Europa League.

"It is an open forum to criticise Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, but from our perspective we are just over the moon that they are coming here."

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