Arsenal vs Watford comes up by 2.30pm. Before that, lets take a look at the preview

Arsenal's defence of their FA Cup crown will continue
this weekend when they host Watford at the Emirates
Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners have won the competition in both of the
past two seasons and are bidding to become the first
team to lift the trophy three years in a row since the
1880s.

ARSENAL
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has a difficult balance to strike over the coming weeks in terms of which competition to prioritise.

As things stand, the Gunners are the only club still in with a shout of winning the treble, although that accolade, by Wenger's own admission, is "95%"
certain to be taken from them when they face Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.

With a 2-0 first-leg deficit in that tie, the Champions League can be more or less discounted, but Wenger is refusing to give up on the Premier League title race.
However, the gap to leaders Leicester City is eight points and, with just nine matches of the season
remaining, it is a big ask for them to not only make that up, but also beat Tottenham Hotspur and
Manchester City in the race too.
Indeed, Arsenal's place in the top four is by no means
guaranteed yet. They currently sit third in the table,
but Man City could move above the Gunners should
they win their game in hand while West Ham United
are just three adrift of Wenger's side.
In terms of silverware, though, the FA Cup appears to
be their best bet now. No team has lifted the trophy
more often than Arsenal and victory this weekend
would see them progress to a 16th straight round in
the competition - an all-time record they already jointly
hold.

Things weren't particularly straightforward in the last
round, though. After wins over Sunderland and
Burnley to reach the last 16, the Gunners were held to
a stalemate by Championship outfit Hull City at the
Emirates, forcing a replay at the KC Stadium earlier
this week.
It looked to be a tricky assignment against a side flying
high in the second tier and with only one defeat at
home all season, but Arsenal put in a clinical display to
run out 4-0 winners, with braces for both Olivier
Giroud and Theo Walcott .

Aside from sending them through to the quarter-
finals, that victory also ended Arsenal's damaging five-
match winless streak, although it did come at a cost,
with Per Mertesacker , Gabriel Paulista and Aaron
Ramsey all coming off with injuries.

It could be a makeshift defence that comes up against
the likes of Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney, then, and
Watford will be even more encouraged by Arsenal's
recent home form - they have won just one of their
last five at the Emirates, and defeat this weekend
would condemn them to three in a row in front of
their own fans for the first time this century.
They have been fortunate with a large proportion of
recent FA Cup ties coming at the Emirates, though,
and they are unbeaten in their last nine home outings
in this competition.

WATFORD
While Arsenal have been here and done it all before in
the FA Cup, for Watford this is relatively new ground.
They have made the quarter-finals of this competition
just nine times in the past and have never gone all the
way, coming closest when they were beaten by
Everton in the 1984 final.
Many will feel that this season is their best chance of
lifting what would be their first ever major piece of
silverware since those glory days under Graham
Taylor , and with Premier League survival all but in the
bag, Quique Flores can turn his full attention to
reaching Wembley.
The Hornets may not fully relax until they are
mathematically safe having never before avoided
relegation in a Premier League season, but with 13
points separating from the bottom three they can be
reasonably certain that they will be plying their trade in
the top flight again next year.
It has already been one of their best seasons in recent
times, then, and success in the FA Cup could well
catapult it to among their best ever campaigns, so
there is a major motive for Watford to throw
everything into the competition.
Their form has tailed off in recent months, though. A
victory over Liverpool in their final game before
Christmas left them just one point adrift of the
Champions League places, but they have managed
just two wins from 12 league games since to sink into
the bottom half.
They have failed to even score in the last three games,
and while Ighalo and Deeney provided 19 goals
between them before the turn of the year, they have
provided just five so far in 2016.
There will be particular concern away from home,
where Watford have won just one of their last six
league games and have failed to score in four of their
last five, losing all four of those matches.
Goals have also been scarce in this competition, but
Watford have managed to squeeze through each
round so far, beating Newcastle United, Nottingham
Forest and Leeds United all by a 1-0 scoreline to reach
the quarter-finals.

Dexter says: Arsenal 2:1 Watford

ok

TEAM NEWS:
ARSENAL XI: Ospina; Chambers,
Mertesacker, Gabriel, Gibbs; Elneny, Coquelin, Joel
Campbell, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud

WATFORD XI: Pantilimon (GK); Nyom, Prödl,
Cathcart, Ake; Watson, Behrami; Capoue, Deeney (c),
Guedioura; Ighalo.

ARSENAL SUBS: Macey, Bellerin, Monreal,
Flamini, Iwobi, Walcott, Welbeck

WATFORD SUBS: Gomes (GK), Anya,
Suarez, Abdi, Jurado, Amrabat, Oulare

wiloy2k8:
ok

UR prediction?

Cc Lalasticlala Ishilove

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