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Sutton dreaming of a draw and 'a great day out' at Arsenal

Sutton shocked Leeds in the last round of the Cup
Sutton shocked Leeds in the last round of the Cup

Sutton United are hoping for a draw against Arsenal when the Premier League giants come visiting for Monday's FA Cup fifth-round clash.

"I think if you see (Mesut) Ozil and (Alexis) Sanchez on the team sheet, our chance doesn't come beyond nought," manager Paul Doswell told reporters at the club's Gander Green Lane ground on Thursday.

"But if they put another team out then it does get up to the 1 and 2%.

Arsenal were thrashed 5-1 at Bayern Munich in a last-16 first-leg Champions League match on Wednesday and the shift from the Allianz Arena to playing in front of 5,000 fans in the south-west London suburbs will come as a shock.

Sutton, who beat Championship side Leeds United in the previous round, are hoping Arsene Wenger gives his stars a rest.

"The chance for them to go to the Emirates and just have a great day out would probably be their preferred result"

"There's two ways of looking at it. You either get the likes of Ozil and Sanchez and Giroud - and you can just keep naming them - in which case we would lose the game comfortably, but the lads would get the experience of having played a Premier League giant," said Doswell.

"Or you go the other way and you play a team of under-23s, mixed in with one or two of their squad players, and that gives us that 1% chance that we'd be after."

"The best result for the players would be a 0-0 - for you lot probably a 3-3 or 2-2," he added.

"If we were to get a draw and we could get back to the Emirates it would be one of the biggest results in the cup's history."

Sutton annual turnover is just £800,000, with a wage bill of £10,000 per week, while their highest paid player earns a weekly wage of £600.

In a strange twist of fate, four of the Sutton squad are ex-Arsenal, including defender Craig Eastmond, who played alongside Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas and Denilson in a 2010 FA Cup tie against Stoke City.

Jack Jebb, Roarie Deacon and Jeffrey Monakana also had hopes of making the grade with the Gunners.  

"I think half of my team support Arsenal," said Doswell.

"The chance for them to go to the Emirates and just have a great day out would probably be their preferred result."

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