Burnley’s Padiham training ground in the pouring rain is not quite the glamorous image of English football exported around the world, but neither is Rouwen Hennings one for complaining. “I am used to the weather already,” he says matter-of-factly. “It is very similar to Hamburg.”

After a career spent mostly with clubs in the German second division the 28-year-old striker jumped at the chance to come to England, even though the offer came from a Championship club. He finished last season with Karlsruhe as leading scorer in Bundesliga 2 and was rumoured to be attracting attention from top-flight clubs such as Hamburg and Werder Bremen, but rumours were all he was left with.

“I heard there was some interest in Germany,” he says. “But it turned out there was not that much. I started the season with my old club, thinking about what might have been, so when I received an offer from England it was perfect timing. I thought I pretty much had to give it a try because the chance might not come along again.

“I was familiar with the name Burnley because I had seen them playing in the Premier League last season. I didn’t know much else about the club or the area but Burnley had been in the Premier League, how much else do you need to know? Four days after the initial contact I was here for my medical check, everything happened really fast.”

So much so that two months after joining the club in August his youngest son, Jordi, was born in a Burnley hospital. “I have three children, and one of them is a Lancastrian,” he says. “We came over as a family, which is always helpful, but the first few weeks in England were hard for my daughter. She is only five-and-a-half years old and had not yet started learning English at school, so she could not understand the language and did not have any friends. Six months later she is fine. She is in a good school and she has found friends, so now she likes it. I do too. Everyone is friendly and the club is like a big family.”

Hennings’ own English is excellent, if a little halting, and he says he can understand Sean Dyche most of the time. “Sometimes he speaks a little too fast for me, but language generally isn’t a problem,” he says.

“At Burnley we all know the way we want to play, we have our own way of approaching games. Football is football anyway, or at least I thought it was. Since coming to England I have discovered subtle differences in the way teams play, it does not seem to be exactly the same all over the world. In Germany, for example, it is more technical, more controlled and slow, with teams taking fewer chances. You might say it is more predictable. Here, the game is more physical, teams play with a higher press, the football is faster in England and I would say the quality is higher. The standard in the Championship is great. The top eight teams would all get out of the Bundesliga second division.”

That does not mean Hennings has found it particularly easy to adapt. He has scored two goals, although one of them in the last round at Middlesbrough helped set up Saturday’s attractive tie at Arsenal, and he spent a couple of frustrating months working out how to find space and the ball at the same time. “I had to learn the English way of playing,” he says. “Defenders act a little bit differently here and I did not know where to run to get the ball. For the first six weeks or so I was just running from one side of the pitch to the other all the time. Maybe getting one pass and no chances to score.

“Now I am used to it I am seeing more of the ball and getting a few chances. I hope I can score more often now I know how the game works here. Twice isn’t really enough and, of course, it would be great to score against Arsenal.”

Failing that Hennings can always look forward to a reunion with Mezut Özil, with whom he played international football at several of Germany’s youth levels. “We played together for 18 months or more about 10 years ago,” he says. “I’ve never seen him since, apart from on television, but I am sure he will remember me and say hello.”

Arsenal are the Cup holders and favourites to go through. Burnley would not mind a Cup run, but are understandably focused on promotion and a quick return to the Premier League. Hennings is very much in favour of that. “Promotion is definitely possible,” he says. “We have a very good team that can beat any other in the Championship. It would be a dream to go up because every player wants to be in the Premier League and there are so many great footballers there already.

“There are more really good teams in England than there are in Germany or Spain. Maybe the very best players are in Germany and Spain but only at a small number of clubs. The Premier League is really strong to at least halfway down, there are lots of top clubs full of high-quality players. One of which is Arsenal.

“Every player hopes to appear in big games and this Cup draw has handed us one of the best teams in the world. A lot of the Burnley players will have played Arsenal before, but I haven’t. It is exciting, because opponents don’t come much bigger or better.”