ARSENE Wenger would never admit it, but he will not relish another trip to the Reebok - not with a place in the FA Cup semi-finals at stake.

The Arsenal boss has suffered some painful experiences at the hands of Bolton Wanderers, and the last thing he would have wanted was a sixth round duel with Sam Allardyce.

Now there is a chance that Arsenal, reeling after crashing out of the Champions League, could have their guns spiked again on the edge of the moors.

"It's amazing how we are destined yet again to play a major part in Arsenal's fortunes," Wanderers assistant manager Phil Brown said as he helped Allardyce plot another upset in Saturday's tie.

"A couple of years ago, we were largely responsible for them missing out on the title when we held them to a draw, and you sensed that, when we beat them here in January, Wenger knew they weren't going to win the league. Now he'll be wondering again what's in store for him."

Wenger will have more respect for Wanderers this time, aware that they are full of confidence after playing their way into the UEFA Cup qualification frame.

Such respect is being increasingly acclaimed by rivals who have seen the Whites emerge as a genuine Premiership force in the five years of the Allardyce's revolution - the seeds of which were sown in the giant-killing days of the early Nineties, when Arsenal were again on the receiving end.

Brown, who was captain of that Bruce Rioch side that built a reputation for cup upsets, has seen the transformation first hand and believes the triumphs at Highbury, Anfield and Everton, fired Wanderers' ambition to play their way back into back in the big time.

"Those days were the stepping stones, leading to where we are today," he said. "Not just the promotions we achieved, but the giant-killings.

"The Bolton punters always talk of those cup runs - the famous victories we had against Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal and Aston Villa. The list went on and on.

"It was probably the beginning of the belief that, after the hard times, we could achieve things.

"Bruce Rioch took us to that level, and now Sam's come in and, with the help of his backroom staff, he's taken it to the next level.

"Now we really believe we can achieve something."

Wanderers did well just to hold Arsenal to a draw at Burnden Park in that fourth round tie of 1994, and no-one outside Bolton gave them a prayer in the replay at Highbury. But they emerged triumphant, as they had at Liverpool a year earlier, with goals from Jason McAteer, John McGinlay and the talismanic Andy Walker.

"I remember when we went to Arsenal we were looking for chinks in their armour," Brown said. "But it was difficult to find any. They were such a great side, but the lasting memory of that night was that we didn't just play well, we absolutely played them off the park. It was 3-1 and that was a great achievement, but it should have been 4-1.

"It was one of the highlights of my playing career.

"For me, league positions have always been the indicator of a club's success. But I've never regarded the cups as a distraction but a bonus, and the FA Cup is one of the best cup competitions there has ever been. Beating teams above you has always been special.

"And we didn't just do it once, we did it time and again, which showed it was no fluke.

"Bruce was a master-tactician, ahead of his time, and what I learned from him has gone a long way to helping me in what I do now - and that doesn't diminish in any way what I've learned from working with Sam.

"The strange thing was that, after all the giant-killing we did that season (having beaten Everton in a third round replay at Goodison and knocked out Villa in the fifth), when we came round to playing Oldham at Burnden Park, people actually expected us to beat them - and we came unstuck."