Published: 13 March 2014

I’M sure that right now Arsenal fans are too excited by their return to Wembley to stop and think about the way their club has behaved in the FA Cup this season.

They don’t care about the fact that the Gunners might just be killing the one thing that makes the competition the envy of all the other cup competitions in the world.

Ahead of Saturday’s quarter-final, visitors Everton had demanded the full 15 per cent allocation so they could bring a 9,000-strong crowd to cheer their team on. But instead the Toffees were allocated just 5,186 tickets amid safety fears sparked by pyrotechnics and persistent standing.

Perhaps these were the same reasons used to reduce the away crowds when Liver­pool and Tottenham visited the Emirates Stadium in the previous rounds, two more teams who saw their pleas to allow their fans to the game ignored.

The FA Cup isn’t considered to be the most special knock-out competition in the world because it’s the oldest. It’s not because it’s the shiniest or even because it fits in the trophy cabinet better than all the rest.

It’s because there’s a real old-fashioned decency to the FA Cup, a democratic heartbeat that allows two sets of supporters the opportunity to cheer their team on to glory.

But I guess when you haven’t won a trophy for nine years all that is forgotten, and the win-at-all-costs mentality takes over. Even if it does kill the one thing that makes winning the FA Cup special in the first place.

BEN COUSINS, N19