Blackpool boss Terry McPhillips is under no illusion that his team will be "massive underdogs" when they welcome Arsenal to Bloomfield Road in the FA Cup third round.

The Sky Bet League One side produced a bullish display when the clubs met at the Emirates Stadium in the Carabao Cup last October before the Gunners eventually secured a nervy 2-1 win.

McPhillips is optimistic the Seasiders will once again exceed expectations but knows they will need a large slice of fortune to get a result against their Premier League opponents this weekend.

He said: "We're playing Arsenal and we're massive underdogs; we're going to need for us to play at our best and for them to dip a little bit.

"And then we're going to need Lady Luck to shine on us. It hasn't been, so it would be nice for that to change on Saturday.

"I fully expect us to put on a performance and a show. Whether that's going to be good enough to get a result against Arsenal, I don't know that.

"Similar to the last game, the lads know a little slip-up or if there's a gap, it will get exploited and the goals will go in.

"But we're at home and we'll give it our best shot, I think they'll know they've been in a game. Upsets do happen and we're hoping it's going to be us on Saturday."

As a result of the disharmony between Blackpool fans and the Oyston family, the club's owners, the visiting contingent have often outnumbered the home support on the north-west coast.

That was the case on New Year's Day when Blackpool welcomed Sunderland and will almost certainly happen again at teatime on Saturday.

McPhillips added: "Lots of the games have been played in an empty shell. Arsenal will have more fans than us here and obviously Sunderland did as well.

"But these lads are resilient and we're used to it. It won't be the first or second time it's happened this season. It's happened a lot that the away fans have been bigger than the home fans, so we almost use it as a positive."