Former Arsenal youth player Roarie Deacon believes he has a point to prove against his old club when non-league Sutton United host the Gunners in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Monday night.
Deacon spent a decade at Arsenal, and the picture of him signing professional terms for the Premier League club, in which he is flanked by Arsene Wenger and his parents, still takes pride of place in the family home.
But the 25-year-old, who represented England Under-19s on three occasions, failed to make a single appearance for the first team and was released in the summer of 2011.
Spells in the reserves at Sunderland followed before moves to Stevenage, Crawley and then Sutton last year.
"I signed when I was nine and left when I was 19," Deacon, who is one of four former Arsenal players now representing Sutton in the fifth tier of English football, told Press Association Sport.
"My contract came to an end and I just had to move on which a lot of the young players had to do. Trying to bridge the gap from the reserves to the first team did not happen for me.
"You could say I have a point to prove. I always want to prove people wrong and wanting to do well and show everyone what I can do, so it is just another chance for me to do that against a fantastic team in front of the television cameras."
Arsenal will head to the humble surroundings of Gander Green Lane on Monday night following a humiliating second-half collapse against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The Gunners lost the last 16 first leg tie 5-1 at the Allianz Arena, all but ending their hopes of qualifying for the last eight. The dismal showing has once again placed Wenger's future at Arsenal in the spotlight.
"Wenger is a great manager and Arsenal are a great team," added Deacon. "It is football at the end of the day and results don't go your way sometimes.
"Managers always have to deal with pressure and they have that pressure on their shoulders, but Wenger is such a great manager that he will most likely come through smiling on the other side."
A defeat for Wenger's Arsenal at Sutton, 17th in the Vanarama National League and playing in the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history, will be regarded as the greatest upset in football's oldest club competition.
But Deacon insists the minnows are capable of creating shockwaves and sending the 12-time winners crashing out of the tournament.
"We do think we can win," Deacon added. "We are not going into this game thinking we want this FA Cup run to end.
"It has brought so much attention to such a great club with a great fanbase. We just have to go out there, do what we do and not be overawed by the occasion.
"We are going to play our game, not the occasion, and go out there, get the ball down and play, fight for every ball, fight for every tackle, fight for everything and hopefully when the referee blows the whistle it will be us celebrating with the fans.
"It would be the greatest upset football has ever seen."
Source: PA
