Arsenal vs Hull preview: Wenger 'will be sacked if Gunners lose'

He's now the longest serving manager in European football but Arsene Wenger could be sacked if Arsenal fail to beat Hull City in tonight's FA Cup fifth round replay.

According to a report in the Daily Express, Wenger's future hinges on whether his side defeat their Championship opponents this evening and progress to a quarter-final clash at home to Watford at the weekend.

It's a bitter predicament for the Frenchman, who, on Monday, became the longest serving boss in Europe following Ronnie McFall's departure from the Irish Premiership team Portadown. Wenger arrived at the Emirates at the start of the 1996-97 season and 20 years later, he's still at the helm - although the last decade has been in marked contrast to the glory of his first ten years.

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Trophies rained down on Arsenal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, since the start of the 2005-06 season, all Wenger has to show for his efforts are two FA Cup titles.

The Gunners are going for an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the competition but even if they achieve that feat, it may not be enough to extinguish the firestorm that is threatening to engulf their manager.

Without a league win in their last three matches, the team have fallen eight points behind leaders Leicester City and the fact they also trail Tottenham Hotspur is further reason for fans to feel a change must be made in the summer.

However, despite their despair - and the criticism levelled in recent days by a clutch of former players, including Thierry Henry and Ian Wright – there is one man sticking by Wenger: Hull manager Steve Bruce.

Bruce, who played for Manchester United in the early years of Sir Alex Ferguson's reign, when the Scot struggled to win over the fans, believes Wenger is getting a lot of unnecessary grief.

"From inside the game, you are not going to hear people criticise," he said during a pre-match press conference. "When you are a manager as long as he has been and see what he has achieved and what he has been able to do at Arsenal, who is anybody to criticise him?"

Calling some the criticism the Gunners' boss has received from fans, pundits and the press as "really appalling", he added: "[Wenger] has helped build a fantastic club. He has helped finance it, he has had to sell players, he has never been able to really compete the way everyone else has at a top club - but he has kept them in the top four for 17, 18 years.

"From me, he will only get one thing, which is respect. I think he deserves a bit more than he gets dished out, considering what he has achieved."

Bruce's words, while noble, are unlikely to placate Arsenal's fans should their team lose this evening. With their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-final of the Champions League looking bleak after last month's 2-0 home defeat to Barcelona, all that remains is the faint hope of overhauling Leicester and Tottenham in the closing weeks of the title race.

But even on that, Bruce said Arsenal fans must temper their expectations.

"It is very difficult to win a title," he said. "With the emergence of Chelsea and Manchester City over the last decade, it is very difficult for any big club to win a title. It doesn't just come as easy as maybe it used to."

Yet Leicester are on the brink of their first Premier League title with a squad assembled at a pittance of the price of the Gunners', who, in the last fortnight, have suffered their familiar early spring implosion.

In their defence, Wenger's side have been juggling three competitions compared to Leicester's one and for that reason, the Frenchman is expected to make significant changes to his starting XI tonight. Reports suggest Calum Chambers, Mathieu Flamini, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud will all start as the manager rotates the squad before the first of four matches in 12 days.

Having just played five games in 15 days, there will be some weary minds and bodies in red and white this evening, but Wenger was in defiant mood.

"I do not worry what you say about me or what fans say about me," he said yesterday, in what the Daily Mirror described as a "passionate rant".

The manager added: "I have no problem to cope with everything but I find that a bit boring in the end. I always have to convince you that I am good enough... I work and work and work. If it's not good enough, someone will tell me one day."