Football
ESPN staff 9y

Ander Herrera: Manchester United not afraid of Arsenal FA Cup quarterfinal

Ander Herrera insists Manchester United are not scared of Arsenal as they prepare for Monday's FA Cup quarterfinal clash at Old Trafford.

United needed a late Ashley Young goal to secure a 1-0 win at Newcastle on Wednesday and stay fourth in the Premier League table, while Arsenal won at Queens Park Rangers to remain third.

Both sides will turn their attentions away from the battle for Champions League qualification to the FA Cup on Monday, and Herrera has called on the Old Trafford crowd to help inspire the players.

"Now we are looking forward to our match in the FA Cup because it's a very big chance to win a trophy this season," Herrera told the club's official website. "But we have to respect Arsenal because they are playing very well.

"We are Manchester United and we are not afraid. We are going to play in front of our fans and we need them [for us] to win."

The St James' Park wins sets United up for a top-four finish with 10 games left, but Herrera says he and his teammates to be more prolific to qualify for the Champions League after missing a number of chances against the Magpies.

"I think we deserved to win," he continued. "We deserved to score before and we were a little bit disappointed at half-time because we should have been winning.

"We created chances, we kept the ball, and we didn't give a lot of chances away -- I think only one in the first half, in the last minute. But now we are very happy. When you win in the last minute you are very happy. But I think we have to improve, we have to score earlier, because our fans are suffering too much!

"When I was looking at the results of our rivals, I thought it was a very, very important victory because Arsenal won, Liverpool won, Tottenham won, Southampton won.

"You know the battle for the top four is going to be very hard, but I think we are in the right way, because we are winning the games through the ball [possession] and creating more chances than our opponent."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger wants his side to seek success through a strong attack after beating QPR, telling Arsenal Player: "I wanted the team to continue to attack, because we are not a team that can sit off and wait for the teams who commit and get them only on the break.

"We need to master possession and we did that well."

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