The Football Insider With Mikael Silvestre: The Magic Of FA Cup Lives On

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) This weekend gave us a classic FA Cup round in England with both smaller teams trying to pull off upsets over famous clubs and in the case of Manchester United against Arsenal, a clash featuring two of the country's most famous names.

As many people know I played for both United and Arsenal and still have a great deal of affection for them both now I have retired.

I also love the FA Cup and as a boy I remember watching games in France as in those days the English league wasn't shown but the Cup was.

Going back to this game it was a pleasure to see United play well again following their showing against Liverpool last week. You can see the players are understanding the manager's new system and in defence they were superb. I am not going to say they have finally turned a corner as there has been far too much of that in the last few years. But let's just say this is progress.

Arsenal will be upset to be out of the Cup but they have a wider problem that is going to cause them an issue in the league and that is not scoring enough goals. We saw plenty of chances created against United but players like Kai Havertz didn't take them and I would think Mikel Arteta now has to really consider bringing in a striker in the January transfer window.

That will not be easy and the momentum is really with Liverpool as things stand so Arsenal fans will be hoping the leadership at the club can work a miracle in the transfer market.

In recent seasons I think the FA Cup has got back some of the prestige it had and it often acts as a springboard for teams to go on and win more important trophies.

Any player will tell you the bottom line is winning medals so at the end of your career you have genuine achievements to look back on and savour.

It's an old saying but nobody remembers who came second and this season I think every team will all be desperate to win the FA Cup – it can give them the impetus to aim for more in the coming seasons.

There is so much history with the trophy that a winner's medal is something to be truly proud of. I remember when I was at United we had to pull out one season to play the Fifa Club World Cup in Brazil and there was a national outrage!

My pick at this early stage?

I think United, City and Liverpool will all be desperate to life the Cup at Wembley in May and for me it's one of them.

(Former French defender Mikael Silvestre won five Premier League titles with Manchester United. He was also part of the United team that won the 2008 Champions League title)

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