Arsenal v Blackburn Rovers
The FA Cup, Semi-Final
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
16 April 2005, 12.15pm



Arsenal star Lauren says Arsenal will still see this season as a big success if they win The FA Cup and finish second in the Premiership.

The Gunners have had a difficult campaign after winning the Premiership without losing a game in 2004.

But although Chelsea look certain to steal their title away and Bayern Munich knocked them out of the Champions League, Cameroon defender Lauren says Arsenal still have plenty to aim for.

Arsene Wenger’s side go head to head with Blackburn in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Cardiff and Lauren is 100 per cent focused.

He said: "It’s always important to play in a Semi-Final and it’s even more important this year because The FA Cup is the only competition we have a chance to win. It is a massive game.

"We all expected to do better in the league and to improve in the Champions League, but we couldn’t do it. So I think we are all now focusing on The FA Cup.

"There isn’t just one reason why things didn’t go as well as we hoped this season, there are many. We expected too much, maybe, and at the end of the day we didn’t manage to get where we expected.

"When we played against Manchester United the team lost a little bit of confidence and it was difficult to get back.

"But we didn’t have a bad season because we have still got the chance to win The FA Cup - and it’s important every year to win at least one trophy."

Lauren says every Arsenal player will be going for glory in Cardiff and the instructions from manager Wenger is to win The Cup and make sure they at least finish second in the Premiership.

He said: "The perfect finish to the season for us now would be to win The FA Cup and to finish second in the league. That would be a brilliant season, even though we didn’t do well in the Champions League."