Arsene Wenger has confirmed what we secretly all knew: he loves the pressure.

Speaking ahead of our FA Cup quarter-final show-down against Watford on Sunday, the boss insisted that he enjoys having the pressure of all these big games on his shoulders. Without it, he says, it’d be pretty boring.

“There’s a lot of pressure and I enjoy it, because I believe real pressure is to play games without any importance – that’s boring,” the manager said to Arsenal Player.

“I believe it’s a privilege for our club to be in position like this.

“You work very hard the whole year to be in these positions when March comes. It’s now down to us to be up to it and take it in a positive way and make sure we come out very happy after each game.”

514338464 arsene wenger manager of arsenal looks on gettyimages
HULL, ENGLAND – MARCH 08: Arsene Wenger, Manager of Arsenal looks on during the Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round Replay match between Hull City and Arsenal at KC Stadium on March 8, 2016 in Hull, England. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Going back to our 4-0 win over Hull just days ago, Wenger spoke about how happy he was with our movement and patience. The victory was exactly what we needed to spark this team into life.

“What pleased me most was our movement, our mobility, our technical quality, our patience as well, and our discipline offensively and defensively,” Wenger said.

“It was quite convincing and we showed the needed patience to beat a team like that. There were some individual satisfactions as well from players that we know less that slowly emerge and show that they have top quality.

“We go into a very important week now that means a lot to us. We go into the third consecutive year in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and that has a big meaning. We then have Barcelona, where we have not given up. Then we go to Everton on Saturday and we still believe we have a strong chance to fight for the Premier League.

“We have three huge challenges and we know it will be down to how much we will move forward and how much we will be capable of giving. We know there will be small margins in these games and we have to be sure that every small margin goes for us.”

With our victory against the Tigers still fresh in our minds, we should be able to go out and handle Watford at the Emirates. The players and manager really want this third FA Cup in a row and I don’t think we’ll be letting it go without a fight.

In addition, the atmosphere at the Emirates should be considerably lighter now that our results appear to be on the up again. Hopefully, we can get behind the boys and inspire them to another win.