The Clash of the Titans

Arsenal v Man U FA Cup 5th Round Preview

Arsenal

On the back of a five match winning streak Arsenal travel to Old Trafford with the aim of knocking their main rivals from the Premier League out of the F.A.Cup. Much has been made of the fact that neither team will field a full strength team because they have one eye on the midweek Champions league fixtures.

Manchester United

Diaby says that Arsenal will go for a win. Is this the attitude which the Man United camp will employ? Will Man U fight for victory or will they do the dreaded defending. Ronaldo will be their main threat.

Star man/ man of the moment

Arsenal: Emmanuel Adebayor. He has scored consecutively in the last matches along the way bagging twelve goals. The Togolese has been traumatizing defences for fun lately. He says he doesn't care about the goals he scores. As an Arsenal fan I hope he is lying.

Manchester United: Ronaldo. The slimy super 7 has never had doubters over his skills but he did he some people questioning their effectiveness. This season he has silenced his critics scoring 19 goals in the league so far. Adding this element into his game means he is in a strong position in the race for the golden boot.

Dream Arsenal, ManU eleven

Almunia

Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy

Ronaldo Fabregas Flamini Giggs

Adebayor Rooney

The mind games

This time the two managers have been relatively quiet. Perhaps they are saving the war of words to unleash just as the first dive from Ronaldo is done. Adebayor has praised Ronaldo describing him as a playstation character and Giggs has praised Adebayor.

Key battles

Ronaldo + Rooney + Teves v. Lehman

Ronaldo versus Clichy

Gallas versus Rooney + Tevez

Senderos / Toure versus Rooney + Tevez

Flamini versus everyone

Fabregas versus Anybody with short vision

Adebayor versus all defenders

Walcott/Eboue versus Evra + Van der Saar

Sagna versus Giggs.

Big match facts

The outstanding tie of the fifth round is Sir Alex Ferguson's 100th as manager of Manchester United.

The top two in the Premier League are also the most successful clubs in FA Cup history; United and Arsenal have won the world's oldest football knockout competition 21 times between them and have appeared in a combined 35 finals.

This is the 35th time Ferguson will have come up against his opposite number Arsene Wenger. Of the 34 previous encounters United have won 11, Arsenal 13. Eight of the 10 other games finished level and two were decided on penalty shoot-outs; United won the 2003 Community Shield, and Arsenal the 2005 FA Cup final.