Arsene Wenger refused to be drawn into whether his Arsenal side are favourites to retain their FA Cup crown this season.
The Gunners sealed their place in the Fifth Round draw on Sunday with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.
After seeing three of the Premier League’s top four sides knocked out during Saturday’s ties, all expectation will now be placed on Wenger’s team to go the distance.
Brighton 2-3 Arsenal
The FA Cup
Fourth Round Proper
Sunday 25 January
Amex Stadium, Brighton & Hove Albion FC
Winning clubs will receive £90,000 from prize fund
But the Frenchman has seen enough of what The FA Cup can do to teams over the years and won’t be getting carried away with talk of a repeat of last season’s success.
“We have good experience from last year and of course we will fight because we want to reclaim our Cup but it is too early to say that [we are favourites],” said Wenger, after goals from Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil and Tomas Rosicky secured their progress at the Amex Stadium.
“After yesterday’s results you would always be a bit cautious. The Cup is The Cup.
“We have good experience and the most difficult games are not especially the expected ones.
“But we always had confidence we could win with the momentum that we have and our urgency was very high.
“I believe our performance was good. There was room for more goals with the chances that we created but we were good enough to go through.
“We gave the performance I expected.”
However, having seen Arsenal’s performance against his side, Brighton boss Chris Hughton believes the Gunners will take some stopping as they surge into the last 16 of the competition.
“The weekend we’ve had has been a tremendous advert for The FA Cup”
Chris Hughton on a spectacular Fourth Round
“I would expect them to be right up there,” he claimed.
“And as well as today, they had a very good day yesterday with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City going out.
“We were very good and spirited in the second half, but we started too slow which you can’t do against Arsenal.
“We needed to get closer to them in that second half and stretch the game and we did that.
“I certainly didn’t feel there was any fear going into the game, there was a confident mood. But it is about how you start and they started very, very well.
“What pleased me most was how we finished the game. We wanted a replay or even a win, but our first-half performance didn’t allow us that.”
But despite his side’s exit from the competition, the former Newcastle, Birmingham and Norwich boss admitted it had been a brilliant few days of FA Cup action elsewhere.
“It’s been a great weekend,” he added.
“This was a record crowd [30,278] here, so that shows what it meant to our supporters and it showed what it meant over the weekend with some of the results, particularly the one at Chelsea.
“I’m not sure that happens in too many other countries. The weekend we’ve had has been a tremendous advert for The FA Cup.”
