It’s been a busy week for the Gers as they travel to Hampden for the final time this season and aim to complete their 2021/22 campaign as Scottish Cup champions.
The Light Blue spoke to the media this afternoon ahead of the squad’s final match of the season against Robbie Neilson’s side and insisted that the team have a chance to end the campaign positively, he said: “It would mean a lot because this trophy has been away from us for a number of years now, we’ve got an opportunity tomorrow whether it’s 90 minutes, 120 minutes or to penalties to bring that back.
“It’s all about being positive now against Hearts, giving them the utmost respect that they deserve after a tremendous season from them – we know it’s going to be a difficult game for us.
“You’re always under that expectation that you need to win games, especially as it’s in a cup final. The whole season always depends when you get here, we’ve got an opportunity to put that right and get silverware – we’re fully focussed on doing so.
“It’s a one-off game, it’ll be a different game at Hampden stadium. They’ve had a fantastic season to get to a cup final and finishing third with some distance, they’re in our thoughts and we’ve done our analysis on them. We’ll give them the respect that they deserve, they’ve got a good management team and players – we know it’s going to be difficult.
“As always, we feel that we can win any game that we go into, and Saturday is no different to that.”
The versatile midfielder reflected on Wednesday night's disappointment in Seville after Eintracht Frankfurt won the Europa League final on penalties at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, but Arfield insisted that the squad must utilise their emotions after the match to drive forward to Saturday and finish the season strongly.
He added: “There is always disappointment when you lose a game of any magnitude, I said after the game you need to remember those feelings because they’re the ones that drive you on to the better feelings – hopefully on Saturday it’s a different feeling that we’ve got.
“Football is a collective team sport, but it’s run by individuals. If an individual isn’t positive then it takes a whole on the collective, I think everyone needs to make sure that they’re alright.
“We’ve got an opportunity to put Wednesday night out of our sight, it will hold a disappointment because we got there and wanted to win the cup, but we have an opportunity to get some silverware this season.
“Wednesday night was obviously a disappointment, but you’ve got to get over that because it’s a cup final, after the game you think about it and get up on Thursday and it’s forgotten about because we have a massive game.”
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