Preston North End host Arsenal on Saturday afternoon (5:30pm kick off) looking to improve on their third round exit from last season’s abrupt FA Cup campaign.

The Championship side that is currently managed by Simon Grayson have not beaten the Gunners in the FA Cup since 1938.

Preston’s last FA Cup win over Arsenal came in the year Lancashire side won their second FA Cup, their first came in 1889.

In 2015, the Lilywhites reached the fifth round of the competition where they were eliminated by Manchester United.

Grayson’s side are 11^th in the Championship and they are only six points a drift of the play off places.

It’s the battle of the ‘invincibles’ on Saturday, as Preston and Arsenal are the only two sides in the country to have ever completed a top flight season unbeaten.

It is the first time that ‘the clash of the invincibles’ has ever taken place; with their last meeting coming four years before the Gunners managed the feat.

Shoot! looks at THREE reasons why Preston can beat Arsenal at the weekend.

Gunned down with injury

Arsenal will be without at least six of their first team players for Saturday’s fixture; with another seven players doubtful.

Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Chuba Akpom, Mathieu Debuchy and Francis Coquelin will all miss the match at Deepdale through injury. Mohamed Elneny will be at the African Cup of Nations, meaning he will also miss the third round tie.

To make matters worse, Per Mertesacker, Danny Welbeck, Laurent Koscielny, Lucas Perez, Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott are all doubts for ‘the clash of the invincibles’.

With Arsene Wenger forced to rotate his side, the Championship outift may not have a better opportunity to eliminate the Gunners from the competition for the first team in over 75 years.

Lack of defeats

Despite Arsenal’s impressive 2016, the Lilywhites have only lost four of their last 19 matches in all competitions.

With Preston’s resilience to defeat, the 2014 and 2015 winners will face a tougher challenge than expected from their Championship opposition.

Arsenal have only won twice in their last five fixtures meaning that they are not at their current best.

So, Saturday is one of the best times for Preston to keep their recent momentum going.

The 4-1-4-1 formation

Preston manager Grayson has operated several systems this season, meaning he has more than one option to choose from before facing Wenger’s team.

One of these is a 4-1-4-1 formation, a system that the Lilywhites have used three times in the Championship this season.

In this set up, they have won all three of their fixtures against Norwich City, Aston Villa and Bristol City; scoring five times and only conceding once in this set-up.

Will Grayson use the successful formation to tackle a weakened Arsenal side?