Imps Brilliant in Braintree: Gunners gunned down by Bayern: Next up for both is the FA Cup tie on Saturday

Last night Arsenal and Lincoln City were both in action for the last time before their much anticipated clash at The Emirates Stadium on Saturday on the Road to Wembley from Scotland. While the Imps were winning in some style the Gunners slumped to an embarrassing heavy defeat.

In an astute piece of business the clever management  team at Lincoln City signed Lee Angol, a young striker from Peterborough United, on loan on Monday. Last night in the Vanarama National League match at Braintree the 22 year old Angol made his debut. Everything the Cowleys touch at the moment turns into gold and the young loanee scored a hat-trick as Lincoln City won comfortably by 4 goals to nil.

An Angol of no mercy! Imps debutante (right) is congratulated by full back Wood

Angol will be ineligible to play against Arsenal and hence the fully rested cult hero Matt Rhead will return to the Lincoln City starting line up. Nathan Arnold was also on the scorecard for the Imps last night who have now gone 10 games undefeated in all competitions. Indeed Lincoln City have only been beaten twice since September.

It was a different story for this coming weekend’s other protagonists. Arsenal were already down 5-1 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League when they lined up face the Germans in the second leg in north London last night. At half time they were 1-0 up on the night and as they sat down during the interval they were dreaming of winning the tie 4-0 and going through to the quarter finals of the Champions League on the away goals rule. Arsenal’s Giroud missed a good chance early in the second half. Had that gone in and Arsenal continued to press forward then the headlines may have looked a lot different this morning. As it transpired the Germans got a dodgy penalty after 54 minutes and in the same incident Laurent Koscielny the Arsenal centre back was sent off. Bayern went on to win the match 5-1 and the tie 10-2 on aggregate.

Even the polite Arsenal fans are calling for a change

Arsenal fans with short memories and a graceless approach to supporting your football team were demonstrating outside the ground after the match chanting ‘Wenger must go’. I often think that football fans should be careful what they wish for. Arsene Wenger has known almost uninterrupted success, including 3 League titles and 6 FA Cups, in 21 magnificent years in charge of the Gunners. Additionally their style of play has been admired and applauded by the purists. However even the ex Arsenal player Charlie Nicholas, the last Scot to play more than 100 times for the Gunners and now the spoonerisms king of Sky Sports punditry, was foaming at the mouth on the telly last night: “It’s broken – Arsenal is broken. Wenger can’t fix it – he does not have the ammunition!”.

Happier times: Wenger lifts the FA Cup acclaimed by adoring fans who are now calling for his head

The outpouring of grief has continued on the football phone in programmes on the radio. The consensus seems to be that the great Arsene ‘The Professor’ Wenger is past his sell buy date and can’t cut it any more. I can’t go along with this. I can’t feel sorry for Arsenal fans who are distraught with their team still likely to qualify for the Champions League next season and poised to reach the semi finals of the FA Cup. Supporters of (for example) Coventry City and Charlton Athletic would love to have to tolerate this degree of failure.

So, it would appear that the Arsenal v Lincoln City match on Saturday might be historic for a number of reasons. Whether I agree with it or not, I am 100% convinced that if Lincoln City win then the Professor will be given his jotters. Could the canny Cowleys be responsible for the end of one of the most illustrious management careers in modern football history?

The FA Cup records of the two clubs couldn’t be more contrasting. Arsenal have the best FA Cup record with 12 wins, 19 Finals and 28 Semi-Final appearances (beating Manchester United into second place by virtue of having one more Quarter Final appearance; 43 versus 42). Lincoln are appearing in the FA Cup Quarter Finals for the first time ever, becoming the 188th different club to make the last eight and the first Non-League Quarter Finalist since Queens Park Rangers in 1914. The Imps have also equalled the record of most League clubs beaten by a Non-League side in one FA Cup run, matching Telford United who defeated four League clubs in 1985. Tottenham Hotspur are the only other Non-League club to achieve this feat on their way to lifting the Trophy in 1901.

The match is stop number 15 on the Road to Wembley from Scotland and already it is a total sell out with 60000 fans ready to turn up at the Emirates on Saturday. I will be in there amongst them. Will Arsene Wenger lift his Gunners and oversee a victory to take the Aresnal into the semi finals of the FA Cup for a 29^th time? Will the Lincoln City pull off the greatest cup upset of all time on Saturday? Will Charlie Nicholas find the words to describe this historic football match? Come back here on Sunday to find out .. and … keep reading.