Cedric Soares believes that Arsenal’s spirit can carry them all the way to the FA Cup final on Saturday. But they might have to “suffer” first against Manchester City much as they did against Liverpool on Wednesday.
Arsenal handed the new champions an early lead then battled back to a 2-1 win thanks to two uncharacteristic Liverpool errors.
But it was backs-to-the-wall in the second half on Wednesday, with Liverpool losing despite recording 24 shots to Arsenal’s three.
Soares believes that resilience will help the Gunners against free-scoring City at Wembley – the only shock to the Portuguese that nobody seems to have told him he is cup-tied after playing 15 minutes as a substitute for Southampton against Huddersfield in the third round.
“I am looking forward to playing on Saturday,” Soares said. “The team have moments and when you keep growing something the wins always give you a push.
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“You have to believe in the work of the coaching staff every day and, of course, when you win you can believe more and it helps the team in that moment.
“We know it will be another tough game against a great opponent on the weekend, but we just need to keep this spirit and the rest will come.”
City won both league encounters this season 3-0 and Soares is under no illusions about just how tough the game will be.
“In football you need to be able to suffer to win,” he said. “We are improving a lot at this.
“The spirit is getting better and better in the team and we showed against Liverpool without suffering you cannot win.
“It was a tough game but we were able to show great character and this made the difference.
“Sometimes you need to adapt to the game and that shows maturity – we knew they would try and put us under pressure but we defended well, worked together as one and when we had the space to go forward we did.
“They are the champions this year, they have great quality but we showed very good character and that is why we got the three points.”
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