Arsène Wenger could stay in management “until the last day of his life”, he said yesterday in advance of today’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at Old Trafford. The Arsenal manager, 58, has no retirement date in mind and cannot foresee a time when he will not care about winning matches.

“It’s a balance between internal desire, instinctive animal desire to fight and to win, and being wise enough to make the right decision [to retire],” he said. “You can’t imagine sitting on the bench at 92, but as long as winning means something to you, you go for it.

“In this life, you sacrifice nearly everything for the next game, and you live like a professional footballer. You don’t go out, you prepare like a player, because it has a massive meaning for you to win. I personally believe that it matters to you until the last day of your life, to win or to lose. You must be destroyed when you lose and happy when you win. That’s why you do the job.”

Wenger denied reports that the club is negotiating a contract extension with Francesc Fàbregas - “at the moment there are no talks; what he wanted to say is that he is committed to the future here” – and may start the Spain midfield player today. Although he has severe selection problems, he will resist the temptation to field his “Carling Cup” side before next week’s Champions League match against AC Milan.

“The best way to prepare for Milan is to qualify tomorrow – not to draw,” he said. “We are on a run and we want to keep that going. It’s too early to sacrifice a competition and we will go there with the idea of winning our next game. We want to show that we can do well at Manchester United because we come back there [in the Premier League] later in the season and that can have an influence.”

The match will be Sir Alex Ferguson’s 100th FA Cup tie and the United manager looks back on the 1999 semi-final against Arsenal with special affection. “It had everything,” he said. “Penalty kicks, Roy Keane getting sent off, deflected goals and of course, Ryan Giggs’s winner. It was a marvellous game.

“We’ll make a couple of changes [today] because we have a massive game against Lyons on Wednesday. You have to get the balance right and hopefully I will. The game will be a normal Manchester United-Arsenal game full of great commitment, feisty, competitive, but both teams want to play good football.”

- Red and White Holdings Ltd has increased its shareholding in Arsenal from 23 per cent to 24 per cent. The investment company, which is chaired by David Dein, the former Arsenal vice-chairman, and is co-owned by Alisher Usmanov, the Russian, is the second biggest individual shareholder. However, a “lock-down” agreement by the club’s board that expires in April, with an option to extend, means that no takeover bid can be launched for the time being.