Arsenala s stand-in captain Per Mertesacker believes that his team is more prepared to handle the pressure of playing at Wembley.
Mertesacker said, a We felt [pressure] last season a lot. No one expected us to lose, for Wigan to go through and that will be the case again.
a We are more prepared but you are never perfectly prepared. There will be different situations and the team will have to grow in the match again, we will have to face the expectations and pressure.a
Arsenal will face Reading in the semifinals of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium this Saturday, and the players and the fans alike will have one eye on what happened last season. Arsenal had almost thrown it all away one more time but rallied in the end thanks to a late Mertesacker goal, who had given away the penalty in the first place to hand Wigan the lead. The penalty shootout was nerve wracking but the gunners prevailed in the end.
Arsenal and Mertesacker had another heart-in-mouth moment at Wembley, this time in the final, when they let in 2 goals in the early stages of the game, but rallied once again to level the scores, setting up Aaron Ramseya s winner in extra time to end the trophy drought.
Whether it will be a similar scenario or if it will be a more relaxed performance is one that fans would have to wait and watch. But they definitely would not want to have to go through the harrowing, nail-biting experience again, and would rather prefer a dull 2-0 win for sure!