The improbable Imps: Lincoln City hoping to continue to make FA Cup history at Arsenal
Whatever the result today, Lincoln City have achieved something which should be impossible in modern day football.
They are the first non-league team to reach the quarter finals of the FA Cup since the first world war. The last team to achieve that feat was QPR in 1914. A footballing miracle on a par with Leicester City last season.
Meanwhile the last non-leaguers to reach the FA Cup semi finals was Swindon in the 1911-1912 season, when King George V was on the throne, at a time when the British Empire controlled almost a quarter of the world's population. However a win for the Imps at the Emirates would certainly eclipse the Robins' effort.
Despite being 87 places below 12-time FA Cup winners Arsenal in the English league ladder, Lincoln go in to the match as the in-form team.
Management duo and brothers Danny and Nicky Cowley's side currently sit comfortably at the top of the National League and in the semi finals of the FA Trophy.
On the flip side, Arsenal look to be in disarray. A team which crashed out of the Champions League after an embarrassing 10-2 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich in midweek, and a manager who seems to be slowly losing the support of the fans. Surely a defeat to Lincoln would be the final straw for Arsene Wenger.
On the pitch, the players are incomparable.
Arsenals's record signing Mesut Ozil cost the Gunners around £40m. In start contrast, Imps fans' paid for forward Nathan Arnold in a crowdfunding campaign.
French frontman Olivier Giroud has been voted the Premier League's sexiest footballer. Meanwhile 'throwback' (as described by his manager Danny Cowley) Lincoln striker Matt Rhead may not be as easy on the eye, but his hustle-and-bustle style, which earned him the man-of-the-match in their historic win at Burnley, could easily be the difference in this match.
Realistically, the Emirates looks to be the final destination for the Imps. The 9,000 Lincoln supporters expected at the stadium will go home proud of their team no matter what the result.
But if they somehow managed to pull off another improbable cupset, would there be a greater David v Goliath story in sport? I'd certainly struggle to find one.