Former Manchester City striker Paul Dickov believes that Pep Guardiola will be wanting to show Mikel Arteta and Arsenal who the stronger side is on Friday night despite it being an FA Cup tie.
In the Premier League currently, City and the Gunners are embroiled in a fierce title race with the two teams separated by five points. Arteta's men hold the advantage at this stage but the two clubs will meet each other again twice in the league before the end of the campaign.
With plenty of pressure riding on the league, normally City would be able to switch off from that battle in the FA Cup but with Arsenal being the opponents, Dickov believes that the Blues can take this opportunity to land an advantage on their title challengers. He told City's official website: "Pep and the players will want to the win the FA Cup.
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"They'll want another trip to Wembley and more silverware. People will say it doesn't matter because it's a cup game and this, that and the other, but it does matter.
"You want to go out there against your big rivals, against the best teams and show them that you are better than them and it'll be no different regardless of what team Pep picks on Friday night. It's going to be strong, when you look at our bench [against Wolves] it's going to be a top, top team."
The fourth round of the FA Cup is the last stage of the competition where replays are needed if the match is level after 90 minutes. Should there be no splitting City and Arsenal on Friday, the replay will take place at the beginning of February.
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