Poyet admits Brighton are ‘scared’ of ‘unbelievable’ Arsenal

Brighton Manager Gus Poyet. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Friday, January 25, 2013
1:31 PM

Brighton manager Gus Poyet believes it will take “something special” from his side to beat Arsenal in the FA Cup fourth round.

The Championship play-off hopefuls will tomorrow host a Gunners side fresh from Wednesday night’s 5-1 drubbing of West Ham.

Poyet sent his first-team coach Charlie Oatway to the Emirates Stadium to watch the game, and got the report he was dreading on Thursday morning.

“Charlie went, and he’s quite scared,” Poyet told reporters.

“Apparently they were unbelievable but I’m not surprised. I know the quality they have got and if they have a good day it will be practically impossible. So we need to make sure we do something special ourselves.

“We need luck and we need to be at our very best in every department. We need to put in the best tactical performance. We lost heavily to West Ham last year, and West Ham lost heavily on Wednesday so if you put one plus one it’s easy to see the result.

“But it’s a football game, things happen, there can be accidents, a sending-off, a decision from the referee. You need to wait for that.”