Christian Burgess will likely line up for Portsmouth against Arsenal tonight.
Portsmouth defender Christian Burgess has spoken about his time at their FA Cup opponents Arsenal as a young player to i News.
Burgess was released by Arsenal as a promising player and has spoken about the chance of causing an upset on the back of their Europa League defeat in midweek.
He said: “I’d been there for four or five years, it was all I knew, and to be rejected at that age was fairly upsetting for me. At the time it seemed like the world was over for me, as a kid. As it turned out it was the best thing for me. If I get the nod, I’ll be really excited at the prospect of hopefully causing an upset.
“We have to go into the game believing that we can win it. There are obviously no hard feelings towards the club, it’s not like I harbour any of that sort of thing… I’ve always been fond of the way they play and wanted them to do well, and still do actually. So it’ll be an exciting time, we want to do well and we want to win. That’d be a great story to tell.”
Burgess played alongside the likes of Jack Wilshere at youth level but never got close to making it at the club and has gone about his career in a different way.
It’s clear his time at the club has given him a fondness for Arsenal in the way that he wants them to do well – aside from when they play Portsmouth tonight, of course.
The match looks like a potential banana skin for Arsenal, in front of what is sure to be a lively crowd all hoping the Gunners’ struggles away from home crop up again.
The big question for the Gunners is how they recover from their Europa League defeat against Olympiakos on Thursday, which looked like it devastated a lot of the players on the night.
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