FA Cup

Martin Keown hopes Arsenal have learnt from Swansea City defeat

By Liam Apicella, Features Editor | 04 January 2013

Martin Keown tells Sports Mole that Arsenal must have learnt some lessons from their defeat to Swansea City ahead of their FA Cup trip to the Liberty Stadium.

Former Arsenal centre-back Martin Keown has revealed his hope that the club's current players have learnt from their 2-0 defeat to Swansea City at the Emirates Stadium in December.

The Gunners face the Swans again this Sunday in the FA Cup, although on this occasion the encounter will take place at the Liberty Stadium.

Looking ahead to the third-round tie, Keown has urged Arsene Wenger's squad to "bounce back" from that humiliating afternoon last month.

"You want your players to feel hurt and want to respond – to bounce back really I suppose," he told Sports Mole. "I think looking back it was a game that Arsenal lost trying to win. In that particular game, there was a little bit of a kamikaze approach to going forward.

"It's about finding a balance and I think the players would have learnt a lot from that fixture. As long as they can learn from it, grow from that experience and demand of each other, then it will be a good experience in the long run – although it hurt at the time.

"It's a chance to wipe the smile of some of the Swansea player's faces because it was a great result for them that day and they won't want to go out the FA Cup."

Last season Arsenal exited the FA Cup at the round five stage to Sunderland.

ESPN will air live and exclusive coverage of three FA Cup Third Round games this weekend. Swansea City vs. Arsenal at 1pm and Mansfield Town vs. Liverpool at 3.45pm on Sunday, then Cheltenham vs. Everton at 7pm on Monday. Visit ESPN.co.uk/tv for details.