The FA Cup is great until it’s your team’s turn, playing on a windswept pasture versus rugged opponents, with Sam Matterface commentating from a different, dumber reality.
It took us a while to get on top of the conditions and our opponent’s man-marking, but we did it comfortably in the end.
Bear in mind that not even Oxford United want to play at the Kassam Stadium, which is the third-biggest attraction in a retail park with a bowling alley and a Frankie & Benny’s.
They have steadily trended upwards in the last decade, and aspire to more than this unfinished parody of Stoke’s Britannia Stadium.
With the ball wafting around like a penny floater at Cleethorpes, this was not a night for subtlety. The ball seemed to gain momentum rather than slow down with each bounce, and just wasn’t sticking. It took us about an hour to clock that fact and adapt.
Every loose touch was punished by an organized and revved-up opponent. Of the men in yellow, I remember right-back Anderson, who matched Martinelli in a couple of races.
Then there was Moore who went through the back of our attackers a couple of times. Brown with the man-bun was defending Saka. And finally you had the scowling Brannagan, who looked like an accident waiting to happen.
Trying to put together a dainty move in these circumstances was pointless, like composing a watercolor landscape in heavy rain. Lokonga flailed, Saka and Martinelli toiled, while Vieira was having the worst time of all.
We needed to be more direct, and much later on it was no shock when Zinchenko—fresh with instructions from Arteta—launched the ball behind the Oxford defence with his first pass.
What you can say is that we were ‘on it’ defensively, tracking runners, winning headers and second-balls at the back. You can bet that Matterface wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to seize on a hint of defensive frailty.
In the meantime, referee David Coote did intervene when we got buffeted, hoicked by the neck, barged in the back, even as the home crowd seethed. Still, Coote might have called a penalty for handball in the 35th minute. It was marginal.
So the first half drifted by without either side coming remotely close. For all we could tell ourselves that Oxford would tire after the break, it was hard to shake the idea that we might not rise above the conditions and stop trying to trap the ball with our shins.
Our prospects looked bleaker in the 49th minute when Holding was caught out. Their striker Matty Taylor went through before being put off by Turner, who looks good, by the way.
Back to Fabio Vieira, who is happiest when has a clear picture of what’s in front of him. He is not one for a midfield scrap, but wants to move into space to use that left foot. So it makes sense that he found some clarity from a dead ball situation.
He whipped in a perfect cross, which found Elneny’s head and then the net. Did Elneny know much about it? Who cares! Elneny was as dependable as ever all night.
From that moment, everything became a lot easier. The snap went out of Oxford’s game, and the distances between the lines grew, to the point that Vieira could receive the ball, turn and play Nketiah through to round their ‘keeper (can’t remember his name—oh, McGinty), for the second.
Emile Smith-Rowe came off the bench for a 15-minute practice session, with all jeopardy removed by a delicate scooped finish after a neatly weighted pass by Martinelli. Was Nketiah offside? Who cares!
There was time for some comments about Arteta leaving his technical area. Now, a lot of managers are animated on the touchline, and a lot spend time out of that little box.
Just like a lot of managers defend their players and avoid talking about contentious moments, like Arsene Wenger used to do.
Is this going to be the new version of “I didn’t see it”?
By then, Matterface had retreated into his alternate reality, claiming Arsenal had the benefit of no European football and could concentrate on the league and cup.
Whatever, the win sends us through to a 4th Round tie at Manchester City.
Birdkamp
Positively Arsenal 
Good morning all, as you can see we have a post from Birdkamp and it is just what the doctor ordered and I really hope it’s the first of a few, if not many.
LikeLike
Thanks Birdy, nice piece and I echo Georges words. I think Oxford want to leave that stadium too.
I can recall standing on the Cuckoo Lane end for several matches at the old Manor ground, both times the Arsenal lost. One was the league (milk) cup game and the other when we got beaten three-nil and Oxford stayed up.The Manor ground when packed and intense was certainly a 12th man.
Xhaka really seemed to change things, what a great player he is.
Anyway glad we didnt lose and cheers again for your report. City will be an interesting test…
LikeLike
Nice write up on a difficult place to play and a tough game to win.
The kind of team for whom the pre-season ‘light touch’ refereeing missive was manna from heaven. Initially I thought we’d be bullied out of this year’s FA cup but eventually the ref got some kind of grip on the game to moderate Oxford’s most ‘enthusiastic’ excesses and class then won through.
Quite delightfully, I’d add, in terms of the nature of the goals scored. Especially so having defended Edward repeatedly on the grounds he needed a string of games in order to get up to Jesus’ former speed, at least in terms of goals scored.
I remain bemused that all handballs in the penalty area have suddenly become too marginal to give to Arsenal these days. Even the half-time commentator was praising the diving Oxford defender for ‘a splendid save’.
Although I’m not too fussed this season about going too far in the Cup, I didn’t want to go out last night, mainly for reasons of confidence and morale. We may yet beat Citeh in the next round but no one will have an existential crisis if we don’t.
Onwards and onwards!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cheers PG, Mills and AA—happy to contribute! And it’s easy to do it when we’re pretty good.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I heard the commentator say this is a real cup tie but in reality it wasn’t. It was tedious and boring and Oxford looked poor.
Once more the second string have failed to impress and seemed content with playing the ball slowly sideways and backwards and offered no press until we went a country up and Xhaka was directing traffic.
I was chuffed for Elneny and Eddie showed once again if we load the gun he will fire it but with a big second half of the season still to go this game highlighted those like Vieira simply aren’t ready.
LikeLike
Thanks Birdy – top report.That first half wasn’t an easy watch but we gradually weathered the storm and no great surprise that it was the older players who secured the midfield. Nketiah’s first goal was a joy: he made it look so simple that it was easy to think he hadn’t had to do much. It wouldn’t be the greatest surprise if he went on to become one of the most prolific Arsenal strikers of all time.
LikeLike
Thank you BK.
Much appreciated especially as I couldn’t watch this match!
‘Is this going to be the new version of “I didn’t see it”?’
Hope not but I think you called it correctly.
LikeLike
Bk
Forgot to add a note to my last comment before you replied. I believe Arteta knows the league & officials (some strange encounters when at City and as the Gunners’ Skipper) & appreciates all aspects of the game (old firm derbies!) much better then I do
Did wince when seeing Saka in the line up, but all our guesses on fitness are speculation.
LikeLike
< I mean Arteta understands the officials better then many managers having recently played & coached in the league etc.
LikeLike
FP,
coming into the restart without Jesus, ESR and Nelson is an injury crisis. We’re on a tightrope, putting a ton of faith in Saka’s resilience for the next few weeks. He was arguably playing too much already.
Nelson had become first choice backup and was looking so good before his injury, and I think he’d have helped give him some rest. That happened right on the back of losing Jesus and has given us even less leeway.
Also, Jesus is really good on the right, and I’m surprised we didn’t see him move across and Nketiah get a couple of league starts in the middle in the autumn.
So yeah, maybe they know something about Saka that we don’t. He’s had injury scares, but they’ve all been from getting booted up and down the pitch.
Because Marquinhos doesn’t seem up to it at the moment.
This Mudryk guy, who knows what’s going to happen there, but maybe he can make a difference on the right. He touts himself as a playmaker, but looks like a guy who might play on the shoulder more in the PL.
Nketiah is going to running on fumes too, but perhaps ESR coming back might allow Martinelli to move central for the odd game.
LikeLike
I think this game has created more things to worry about than we got positive.
It wasn’t only that the squad players are not quite as good as the first eleven but actually they were in general way off.
They didn’t seem to be able to play in the same way that has made us so successful this season, where was the high press, moving the ball quickly through the lines and the quick five yard passes around the area.
We criticised Mikel for not giving back up players enough minutes and that could come back to bite us.
The other thing that worried me was the form of Keiran who has gone from one of the most reliable players and first on the team sheet to struggling against Oxford and looking like one of the favourites to be shown the door, he just doesn’t look the same player.
LikeLike
Wow, it’s like the good old days on here today!
Great write up Birdy, thanks…
LikeLiked by 3 people
I agree with much of Seebs’s observations. It’s very interesting that Kieran, who I think is top class, can play in a more traditional defensive style whereas Zinchenko can be a very effective defender without doing much old school defending.
Zinchenko intrigues me. He is top class. A very, very intelligent player. He anticipates and intercepts rather that tackle. However, its his vision and technical ability that sets him apart from most…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was reading about the Schlumpf Affair the other day, in which a couple of French-based Swiss textile industrialists skimmed wages and dodged taxes, and amassed the world’s largest fleet of vintage Bugattis in complete secret.
During a strike in the 1970s the workers broke into a disused factory, to be confronted by a car collection the like of which nobody had seen before.
That’s what it what it was like looking Zinchenko. He was never more than Man City’s backup, but plays football from a different planet…at full-back. They’ve been hoarding talent like mad up there.
LikeLike
Every to hear from you again GP,
The left back thing is indeed a strange one.
Xhaka came on against Oxford and played a more traditional centre midfield role with Elneny making the forward runs. Our new Ukrainian took up positions on the right side of Xhaka at times obvious allowing us to create overloads all over the pitch.
Keiran usually hugs the touchline and only occasionally comes inside.
The strange thing is surely managers like to play their most successful shape at all levels but Mikel doesn’t seem to trust his second string to adapt to this
LikeLike
Ovie Ejeheri and Joel Ideho have been called up to Nigeria’s U20 team, ahead of the 2023 Africa U20 Cup of Nations tournament that will be hosted by Egypt from February 19 to March 11, 2023.
LikeLike
Nketiah’s two goals v Oxford means he joins Martinelli, Odegaard and Saka as our top scorer in all competitions. They all have 7 goals each so far.
LikeLike
LikeLike
BK
We could even say it was an injury crisis before Jesus was injured!
Was sad about Nelson’s injury as he’d clearly worked hard to have such good form before the break and Arteta is interested hopefully he’ll get another chance.
LikeLike
Ian,
Maybe that Plan requires the very highest technical levels?
Pepe had some technique but as you know better then I he never made the cut (I won’t tell Vinny if you won’t. All good. Raul took the commission sorry I mean fall).
Worth noting that after the drop in form and horrors for many fans resulting from taking Xhaka out the midfield to cover at LB that Arteta then bought in a left back who likes to play in the midfield! Brilliant!! Unlikely but perhaps like some blaggers he also takes notes from these pages haha!
I wonder what the gas lighting click baiting turd brains who said they wanted defensive as in shit football make of it all after a decade complaining about a squad that had too many midfielders and tennish attackers. Of course now they are singing a different tune (hence the easy identification of their nature).
LikeLike
It is difficult to say we have a injury crisis when 95% of our first team are fit.
Compare our luck with injuries to that which Arsene had to deal with or Potter today and you can see we are very lucky.
The problem is not injuries but with the squad especially compared the massive amounts we have spent in the last few seasons.
Jesus is being covered by Eddie admirably and maybe we are seeing an upgrade certainly on actual goals scored.
So where else have we injuries no where really (although I take your point about Reiss).
This is why I worry about Keiran because if he cannot rediscover his form or Mikel cannot find a style in which he excels then surely he will have to go.
With a lot of players on the bench really just potential at the moment it is concerning for the latter and more congested points in the season when teams seasons can literally fall apart.
For the moment our best eleven will be severely tested in the coming matches and every win will be a diamond especially against the enemy down the road
LikeLike
Nathan Butler-Oyedeji scores late winner as Arsenal U21s beat Leicester City
by jeorge bird
Premier League 2
Arsenal 2 (Awe 59, Butler-Oyedeji 85) Leicester City 1 (Marcal 10)
By Jeorge Bird @ LV Bet Stadium Meadow Park
After being thrashed by Manchester City in their opening game of 2023, Arsenal U23s returned to winning ways as they came from behind to beat Leicester City 2-1 at Meadow Park tonight.
Arsenal, perhaps still reeling from the nightmare in Manchester, were sluggish in the first half and fell behind after just ten minutes. However, the young Gunners responded in impressive style in the second period, with Zach Awe equalising before Nathan Butler-Oyedeji continued his superb season with a late winner.
Coach Mehmet Ali made three changes to his team, with Zane Monlouis, Ben Cottrell and Ethan Nwaneri coming in for Taylor Foran, Jack Henry-Francis and Mauro Bandeira.
Graczyk
Walters-Monlouis-Awe-Sousa
M. Smith
Cottrell-Nwaneri
Cozier Duberry-Butler Oyedeji-Sagoe Jr
Subs: Cirjan (for Nwaneri, 63), Foran (for Monlouis, 74), Henry-Francis (for Cottrell, 74), Vigar (for Butler-Oyedeji, 90).
Not used: Hillson.
Leicester put Arsenal under pressure immediately, with Hubert Graczyk called into action.
With ten minutes gone Leicester took the lead through Wanya Marcal following a well-worked corner.
Gradually Arsenal started to pose more of an attacking threat, with Matt Smith’s free-kick just eluding Monlouis.
Charles Sagoe Jr then did well to play in Butler-Oyedeji, who saw his shot blocked.
Nwaneri had an effort deflected wide before Lino Sousa had to react quickly at the other end in order to cut out the danger.
Butler-Oyedeji and Cozier-Duberry tried their luck in the closing stages of the first half but Arsenal weren’t able to pull level.
Arsenal started the second half well, with Nwaneri coming close to scoring and Cozier-Duberry then striking the post.
Leicester saw an effort go wide but Arsenal then managed to pull level, with Awe scoring his first league goal of the season with a header following a corner.
Nwaneri had a shot saved as Arsenal started to grow in confidence and Leicester then sent on a former Gunner in Bayli Spencer-Adams.
Catalin Cirjan came on for Nwaneri and the Romanian youngster had a shot saved.
Further changes followed, with Taylor Foran and Jack Henry-Francis entering the fray in place of Monlouis and Cottrell, with the latter having given a good account of himself as he continues his return to full fitness.
Arsenal continued to push for a winner, with Cozier-Duberry driving forwards prior to finding Sagoe Jr, who almost scored.
Eventually Arsenal managed to get the winner and it was Butler-Oyedeji who applied the finishing touch.
Billy Vigar came on for the goalscorer, with four minutes of added time then signalled.
Cozier-Duberry had two efforts cleared away and then Graczyk made an important save.
The final whistle then blew, with Arsenal’s victory confirmed. They are level on points with league leaders Chelsea but the Blues have a superior goal difference.
It was a disappointing first half display from Arsenal, who struggled to cause many problems for a well-organised Leicester side.
However, in the second half Arsenal were largely dominant and the likes of Butler-Oyedeji and Sagoe Jr came to the fore, while Cirjan was lively following his introduction.
Nwaneri showed glimpses of his ability before being withdrawn and in the end what threatened to be a difficult evening turned out to be a positive one for Arsenal.
LikeLike
A
LikeLike
Looks like chelUSA have got Mudryk
LikeLike
reports in spain suggest Arsenal are trying to sign raphina from barcelona, we were in for him in the summer but he chose Barca, but things have not gone as expected there and he might be allowed leave this window.
LikeLike
anyone notice how little the media are making out of pep’s after game comments today, he basically told the BBC that we all know that the PGMOL side with Man Utd, imagine any other manager say that, there would be a massive stink about it
LikeLike
we have two games, two massive games to bring us to the half way point of the season, Spurs away tomorrow, and Man utd at home.
Win lose or draw we will be top at the half way mark, the question is by how much
If we win both we would be at the minimum 8pts clear at the top, and up to 11pts clear. We would also be a minimum of 12 clear of man utd, 14 of spurs, 19 of liverpool and 22 of chelsea
lose both and we could be as little as 2pts clear of city, and only 3pts ahead of pgmol utd, sorry man utd.
thats how big these two games are
LikeLike
Arthur Okonkwo was not in the Crewe squad today with him said to be close to a loan move to Strum Graz for the rest of the season, he has had ten clean sheets for Crewe so far this season in his impressive loan spell from Arsenal.
LikeLike
If fixtures were falling like the start of the season we would be playing chelsusa and Liverpool today and next week but unfortunately we are not and by the time we play them they might be considerably better.
The two games we are playing couldn’t be harder at the moment firstly going to our local rivals where we haven’t won since 2014 and then we play the most in form side in the league who have the full support of pigmol between them.
Although being top of the league there is always pressure to win every game in reality two draws would be a good result from the two games.
Of course we have the ability to win both of these games but we will need to be at our best and not be interfered with by the officials.
This is the start of some massive games this month COYG.
LikeLike
I hope they change the offside rule next season, and go back to something more clear and strict. Its seems way too open to ( ) interpretations?
LikeLike
Mills I am not sure it matters what the Law is when Grandmaster Webb is back in charge to help ensure that the league is back “On Brand”, too many seasons without the Brand back up near the top has been known cause the great and the good to break out in a cold & bloody league credibility destroying sweat. But hey at least we are superior to the Italians eh (if you ignore the WC record/the Football…)
Speaking of which Conte’s comments on the officials ahead of this game betrays his confidence in The Pelanty King (except when it counts) getting a pelanty today. What are the odds? Shall I put a punt on it? Will I blaze my shot over the bar? What is the current ludicrous count in NLDs is it a random coincidence.
COYG.
LikeLike
I expect the weasel Tierney to find at least one from a setpiece or corner the like of which none have been given in countless other games and then backed up by a Sky stooge retired Ref
LikeLike
Have the notion of doing an occasional match report. But if there’s one match I can’t bring myself to watch live its the NLD away.
LikeLike
Come on you Gunners, started off well…
LikeLike
number two!
LikeLike
Ha! The Chickens thought they had the obligatory pen! HT 0-2, should have been 3.
COYG!
LikeLike
Very good first half…please no complacency….
LikeLike
we are all over the place in the second half, Ramsdale with a couple of great saves to keep us 2 up
LikeLike
Tierney on for Martinelli
LikeLike
Tomiyasu on for Zinchenko
LikeLike
5 minutes of stoppage time to be played
LikeLike
Vieira and ESR on for Odegaard and Nketiah
LikeLike
Tale of two halves,+ in fairness to the Spuds they are a very strong second half team, but we weathered the storm. Thankfully the fantastic first half performance pulled us through. 8 points clear, derby double. The silent Coop. Nice.
COYG!
LikeLike
FT: spurs 0-2 Arsenal
Lloris with an OG and Odegaard with our goals to put us 8pts clear at the top of the league
a fully deserved win despite Ramsdale being named man of the match, we dominated the first half and could easily have been more than the two up,
we now face man utd next weekend to hit the half way mark of the season, and looking good if somewhat a bit lightweight squad wise, especially up front, but if we can avoid injuries and the influence of the pgmol we are in with a real chance of winning this damn thing
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ramsdale was assaulted by a spurs fan after the game, disgraceful
LikeLiked by 1 person
14pts clear of spurs in 5th, with a game in hand, and a full 19pts clear of liverpool and chelsea, game in hand on chelsea too
beat man utd next weekend and we would be 12pts clear of man utd in third at the half way point of the season. Come on you gooners
LikeLike
LikeLike
great to see Ramsdale in top form today, his form had dipped a little of late.
LikeLike
on thursday its man city v spurs, then on saturday its liverpool v chelsea, newcaslte v crystal palace and on sunday, man city v wolves and arsenal v man utd
LikeLike
Arteta on missing out on Mudryk “I Am very happy with the players I have. The window is open, we will try and improve the team and the club is willing”
LikeLike