Manchester United's Michael Carrick has expressed his desire to win the FA Cup and round off his impressive medal haul.
Carrick is one of many in the United squad who have failed to win the famous competition, as Sir Alex Ferguson's side haven't lifted the trophy since 2004, and only Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea and Wes Brown remain from that squad.
For many in the Red Devils' current squad, their only memory of an FA Cup final was a defeat to Chelsea four years ago.
The former Spurs midfielder told ITV.com: “There is a good chunk of us who haven’t won the FA Cup, so we are desperate to progress.
“I was fortunate enough to play in a final at Wembley when I played against Chelsea in 2007 but we lost so my memories are not too fond.
“It was hard to take losing that final. I have been lucky enough to win other trophies and I am very proud of them but missing out on this one hurts.
“I think that goes for a lot of our squad. That’s why we are so keen to get to Wembley and win this time. A lot of us are missing that medal and we want one.”
Carrick is well aware that his team face a tough test against Arsenal in the quarter final at Old Trafford on Saturday.
The England international continued: “Arsenal [have] obviously a very talented midfield. They showed against Barcelona in the first leg how good they can be.
“They are very skilful and dangerous and play their way. They don’t change it for anyone. We have always had good games against them and pretty close games.
"They are usually good footballing games and I am sure it can be one the fans will savour.
“We always have great respect for them because we are well aware that, when they are on their game, if you are not switched on they are very capable of beating the very best.
“It is going to be quite a showdown. These are the huge games you want to play in.”
With locals rivals City still in the competition there is the potential for an all-Manchester final, which will have fans drooling, but Carrick is keen to play down the possibility as there is plenty of football to be played before the final.
“I can understand the fans getting excited about the possibility but we haven’t even thought about the chances of an all-Manchester final game at Wembley yet," he said.
“We can’t look beyond this one on Saturday yet because it is so huge. We have been so busy leading up to this one that even Arsenal hadn’t been mentioned prior to Liverpool.
“It really is a game-by-game time of the season and that is the only way you can tackle a run-in.”
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