‘Non-league is the real world – and we’ll make Arsenal know that’
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Updated 20/02/2017 at 13:53 GMT
Sutton United midfielder Craig Eastmond insists his former club Arsenal are in for a reality check against the non-leaguers.
Sutton United's Craig Eastmond during training
Image credit: Reuters
The sides contest a spot in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Monday evening, with Sutton’s Gander Green Lane an unusual setting for the pampered Premier League visitors.
Eastmond insists Arsenal will not receive preferential treatment and can expect a dingy, cramped dressing room and dodgy showers.
“The Arsenal players are probably going to think: ‘What is this, really?’” Eastmond told the Guardian.
But this is non-league. This is the real world, the real stuff. There’s always stuff wrong with non-league pitches and non-league dressing rooms but you can’t make them feel at home. It’s going to have to be one where they’re thinking: ‘Ah, I don’t really want to come to Sutton and play this on a Monday night.’ No one fancies going to a non‑league team, really.
Eastmond made 10 appearances under Arsene Wenger between 2009 and 2010 after graduating through the academy, but his full debut – a 2-1 win over Liverpool in the League Cup – was one of few highlights.
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FOOTBALL Eduardo of Shakhtar Donetsk in action against Craig Eastmond of Arsenal
Image credit: AFP
“I’d supported them my whole life and then I was playing for them,” he said. “I had my name on the back of my shirt and I was playing for Arsenal – what I’d always wanted. You’ve got to move on. I knew a lot of people who were leaving clubs and going down leagues but they were playing more first-team football and that’s what you want.”
His time in north London soon expired and, following several loan spells, he dived into the Football League with Colchester United and Yeovil Town. Eventually, he wound up at Sutton, then in sixth-tier of English football.
The 26-year-old made an immediate impression, helping the club into the National League – the pinnacle of non-league football – scooping two club player of the year awards in the process.
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Sutton United's Craig Eastmond (C) celebrates with team mates at the end of the match
Image credit: Reuters
While his chance at Arsenal has passed, he has an opportunity to show he belongs on the same pitch as his Premier League rivals – and he’s already dreaming of a mammoth upset:
Their last game was at Bayern Munich, in front of 70,000, and they’ll be down here in front of 5,000. That’s the thing about the FA Cup. It gives little teams an advantage. It would be amazing if we beat Arsenal. It would be history.
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