Lincoln City striker, Matt Rhead, reckons this is the best time for the non-League team to face Arsenal.
Arsenal’s heads are down following a second 5-1 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich on Tuesday night while Lincoln are flying high. The Imps are currently top of the National League table, which means they’ll be promoted to League Two next season if they can stay there, plus they’re about to face Arsenal at the Emirates in the FA Cup.
“I don’t think there could be a better time to be playing them,” the 32-year-old told the Daily Star.
“The FA Cup is all they can win now so it definitely turns all the pressure on them.
“On paper they should beat us, but we are going there confident especially if we could just keep them quiet for a bit.”
He went on, “To be honest the first result we were looking for was the Barrow result, then a OKcouple of the lads said what had happened to Arsenal.
“We were all talking about it on the coach on the way back. Okay, we’re not Bayern Munich but we will give it our best shot.
“No one gave us a chance against Burnley and look what happened. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
Although Lincoln might have had their hope raised by Tuesday’s display, they’re still a non-League team and if Arsenal can’t beat them at home, we have even bigger problems than we thought.
Despite this, the Imps’ boss (which sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings), Danny Cowley and his assistant, younger brother Nicky, should be well prepared, according to Danny’s wife, Kate.
The former roommate of Olympian Jessica Ennis-Hill described how recently Nicky and Danny did their pre-match prep within a three-and-a-half window between press appearances.
“We went to the BBC and the kids got a tour of the Blue Peter studios and before the programme, everybody was coming over to congratulate us,” Kate explained, report the Daily Express. “I thought, ‘This is bonkers. People in Manchester know who we are’.
“The following morning Danny and Nicky did Newsround and various other programmes first thing, taking their laptop with them so they could watch the Ferriby game between interviews. Finally they came to sit down with us and say hello at breakfast.
“When they got up they nearly left a sheet of paper on the table. It was the team for the next game. Somehow between 5am and having breakfast at 8.30am, they had done their preparation.”
To be fair, that’s probably all the preparation they need to face this Arsenal team if they decide to bottle this.