“The past is the past – what’s been has gone,” he said in his pre-match interview with Sky Sports. “It’s nice that in the past we’ve been able to hold our heads up against them and get some results but it doesn’t really help tonight.”
Hodgson says he has been impressed by Arsenal this season despite their early struggles.
“The fact is they had a difficult start in terms of results – I don’t know about in terms of performance – but recently the results have definitely been going their way.
“They’ve been playing very well. When I’ve seen them on television I’ve been impressed, so you always know you’re going to get a very tough game at the Emirates because Arsenal have so many quality players.”