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20th Feb 2017

Every football fan will respect Arsene Wenger’s classy pre-match tribute to Sutton United

This is why we love the FA Cup

Simon Lloyd

Unsurprisingly, a lot has been made of Arsenal’s FA Cup tie with non-league Sutton.

A side that have won the competition more than any other – that only five days ago were walking out for a Champions League match at one of the finest stadiums in world football – were at the humble surroundings of Gander Green Lane.

Plenty of the buildup to the game looked at some of the facilities of the 5,000 capacity stadium. The four showers in the dressing rooms got a special mention on The One Show; a radio show host laughed as he imagined Arsenal’s highly-paid stars taking it in turns to charge their phones with the one working plug socket available to them in the away changing facilities. That sort of thing.

This continued when the BBC’s Match of the Day coverage began, too. During a pre-match interview with Arsene Wenger, the camera showed viewers around the room in which the Arsenal manager was responding to questions.

Boasting nothing more than a whiteboard and an old couch, Dan Walker informed those watching that Sutton’s reserve team goalkeeper calls the room his bedroom for three nights a week.

With the camera turning back to Wenger, the Arsenal manager delivered his assessment of his side’s surroundings for the night.

Spot on, we’re sure you’ll agree.

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