Arsene Wenger has slammed suggestions Arsenal’s FA Cup fate will have an impact when he decides his Gunners future.
Wenger’s side face Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley on Sunday with the Gunners boss yet to reveal if he will extend his 21-year stay with the north London club.
With Wenger enduring constant calls for his resignation from furious Arsenal fans, it has been claimed a limp exit from the FA Cup might convince the Frenchman to quit when his contract expires at the end of the season.
The north Londoners have once again failed to mount a challenge for the Premier League title and suffered an embarrassing Champions League last 16 thrashing by Bayern Munich.
With Wenger’s record of qualifying for the Champions League for the last 19 years under severe threat this season, lifting the FA Cup might be the only way to salvage a wretched campaign.
But, asked yesterday if winning the Cup for a seventh time would have a bearing on his future, Wenger said: “It doesn’t play any part in that.
“The FA Cup is a very important game for me because it’s the next game and because it’s an opportunity, as I just told you, to win a trophy this season. So of course we are all fully focused on that. My future is Sunday.
“What I expect when you go into a semi-final is to go to the final. I think somebody told me that I had played 10 semi-finals in the FA Cup, so that means it’s a great experience and it’s always something special.
“I remember my first one, we just spoke about it, when we played at Villa Park against Wolves. That’s the day when I realised how big the club is, how much it means to our supporters. 
“It is a special experience and, for us, I think we are focused, highly motivated. 
“Maybe not at the maximum of our confidence because we had recently some disappointing results, but that is a good opportunity to show we are ready for a fight and how much we want to go to the final. Because it’s maybe our only opportunity to get a trophy this season.”
Even if they win the Cup, failure to qualify for the Champions League qualification would taint any Wembley celebrations.
But Wenger insists Arsenal, currently seven points adrift of the top four, are not in a position where they have to start prioritising the FA Cup over the league yet.
“You don’t think about it like that because we don’t have to make a choice,” he said.
“We are not in a position where you can make a choice, do we choose this or do we choose that? The next game is the semi-final of the FA Cup, so we have to give absolutely everything to go to the final.”

‘Wilshere expected back in Arsenal training in July’
Injured England midfielder Jack Wilshere will return to Arsenal from Bournemouth at the end of the season and is expected to return to training in July, manager Arsene Wenger said yesterday. Wilshere, 25, broke his leg during a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend and will be out until after the end of his loan deal.
Wenger told reporters he had discussed the situation with medical staff. “They think it’s a very simple fracture, that doesn’t need any surgery at all. Hopefully he will be back in July for normal training,” he said. “But we need patience. Let’s hope that all goes well.
“Until the end of the season he’s a player of Bournemouth but we have a good understanding with the medical staff,” added the Frenchman. 
“The rehab will certainly be made here...because the loan spell ends at the end of the season.”
The injury-prone Wilshere has made 27 league appearances for Bournemouth during his season-long loan deal, his biggest run of domestic outings since the 2013-14 season.
Once one of the brightest young hopes in English football, Wilshere slipped down the pecking order at Arsenal after managing only 17 games in two seasons blighted by prolonged spells on the sidelines.
However, this season was looking brighter and Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said this month that he wanted to sign the player, who is entering the final 18 months of his contract with Arsenal, on a permanent basis.
Wenger said negotiations with Wilshere had yet to start and the injury had nothing to do with any extension although he had been saddened to hear of it. “Jack is a great football player, a great football brain and his career has been stopped by many injuries,” he said. “Today at the top level the most important thing is the consistency of the presence.
“When the player has been out for a while, the game is of such intensity that it takes you always a while to find the rhythm, the confidence back. A great career doesn’t suffer stop and go. You have to be consistently present.
“When you look at all the players who are at the top level in the world like (Real Madrid’s Cristiano) Ronaldo, they play 50 or 60 games a year. They have the luck not to be stopped by injuries. so you are always sad when a guy of that quality is stopped by problems.”