Sam Allardyce takes his side to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday insisting that league survival is the clubs number on priority.
Sam Allardyce takes his side to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday insisting that league survival is the clubs number on priority.
Allardyce is a firm believer that there should be a winter break and he puts his side onto the field in the FA Cup against Arsenal with his side facing three games in a week after a hectic Christmas and New Year fixture list so you cannot help thinking that he is right.
Big Sam will be fielding a young side as he needs his players all up for the survival fight, not, he insists, because he wants to de-value the FA Cup competition.
Allardyce told Eurosport: ‘It’s always the Premier League. We are in the bottom three and that makes our status in the Premier League the most important thing – and this is the club priority, this is the priority from Ellis Short downwards.
‘The emphasis at this football club, at every football club I have been at and every owner I have worked for says we have to stay and we have to be in the Premier League for next season.
‘That’s always the first priority, notwithstanding we all love the FA Cup, we’d all love to do exceptionally well in it. But look, if you win the FA Cup, like Wigan did and who now find themselves in League One having been relegated after winning that FA Cup… This club cannot afford that.’
