Hero Seaman to stay at Highbury

Arsenal 1

The Gunners boss will make Seaman, who played the 1,000th game of his professional career yesterday on his return from a hamstring injury, his goalkeeping coach and will allow him to gradually withdraw from his position as his number one on the pitch.

Seaman's save from Paul Peschisolido with five minutes remaining in the semi-final at Old Trafford ensured Arsenal's victory.

The only cloud on the horizon for the Gunners is that Patrick Vieira is rated at only 50-50 for Wednesday's decisive Premiership match with Manchester United at Highbury.

Wenger said: "It was a great save and I am very happy he made it on his 1,000th game. It is a reward for all his hard work in training he is an example of professionalism and to young goalkeepers.

"I have not made my mind up completely about next season but David will stay with us, certainly as goalkeeping coach. It could be if he's still number one next season, that he could take it slowly and become number two and number three and still take the goalkeeping coaching sessions."

Seaman may be 40 next season but Wenger believes the keeper is in better shape today than when the Frenchman arrived at Arsenal in 1996.

"He's certainly fitter than when I arrived," added Wenger.

"He works much harder, has lost some weight and he puts more effort into training, maybe because he's intelligent enough to see he has to put more in to stay at his level when it was natural before."

Blades manager Neil Warnock also praised Seaman for the save, when he threw himself across goal to claw away Peschisolido's header .

Warnock said: "We had an opportunity to score which we didn't take because of a world-class save. It makes people realise how good he is there's still no-one better than him, he's still number one."

Arsenal players seemed more relieved than excited at the end - partly due to thoughts of Wednesday's crucial match and partly due to the fact they had only achieved the expected.

Wenger added: "Everybody expected us to win, if we didn't do it we would have been hammered so we were not as jubilant as Sheffield United would have been."

The match was settled by Freddie Ljungberg's first-half strike, firing in after Sylvain Wiltord had struck the post, but there was controversy about the build-up.

First Sol Campbell appeared to foul Wayne Allison without being penalised, and then referee Graham Poll collided with Michael Tonge as he tried to intercept.

Wenger rejected suggestions Arsenal should have kicked the ball out when Allison was on the ground, saying: "It was no foul, the ball was moving forward and if the referee doesn't give a free-kick it's normal to go on.

"It was a very physical game, a very scrappy game."

Regarding Poll's collision he added: "These things happen. Do you think the referee ran into Tonge on purpose?"

However United manager Warnock called for referee Poll to be banned. "I just cannot accept that they should go on to the next game without being punished when they make such unbelievable errors and nothing is said, it's just soul destroying.

He said: "It's my pet subject referees, I am disappointed with refs. I shouldn't say what I feel but he was their best midfielder in the move for their goal. He loved every minute of it, he smiled so much he obviously enjoyed that performance.

"We can't do it all. We need help from other people. There was no justice. We worked hard without the help of the ref. It was an absolute disgrace.

"There has to be some recourse and I do think referees should be punished by missing games or weeks and made to feel hurt because that's how I feel."

Warnock waited for an hour outside the door of Poll's dressing room to demand an explanation before the referee allowed him in to make his point.

Warnock added: "It was a foul on Wayne. I have been into see Graham and said there were seven or eight others the same which he gave. The consistency today wasn't good.

"Then he said Tonge ran into him but I didn't see it like that. He could have stopped the game I thought he could have stood still and avoided the collision with Tonge. "But I suppose he made honest mistakes it's the whole system that's wrong."

ARSENAL: Seaman, Lauren, Keown, Campbell, Cole, Ljungberg, Edu, Vieira (Silva 56), Parlour, Jeffers (Henry 66), Wiltord (Bergkamp 81).

SHEFF UTD: Kenny, Jagielka, Page, Curtis, Kozluk, Ndlovu, Brown, McCall (Asaba 60), Tonge, Allison (Montgomery 60), Kabba (Peschisolido 79).

Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).