Whelan has not scored a Premier League goal since February 2010

Stoke City will not ease up ahead of their first appearance in the FA Cup final, according to Glenn Whelan.

The Potters face Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday before taking on Manchester City at Wembley on 14 May.

"We'll keep going right until the end of the season because the manager's got this big thing of getting into the top 10," Whelan told BBC Radio Stoke.

"We've got a big game against Arsenal and they're the games that you want to play in all of the time."

The Potters are currently 10th in the table on 43 points, four less than the tally they achieved in finishing 11th in 2009/10.

Stoke will definitely be without striker Ricardo Fuller (Achilles) for the rest of the season, while winger Matthew Etherington (hamstring) is extremely doubtful for the FA Cup final.

Whelan insisted that the players would not be taking it easy against the Gunners in a bid to avoid injuries.

"You can't think like that because when you start worrying about injuries, that's when you pick them up," added the Republic of Ireland international.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version