Arsenal book themselves quarter-final slot after resisting Mansfield Town's gutsy FA Cup endeadvours

Proper Stags do: Picture by @YTJourno

FA Cup 5th Round

Mansfield Town (0) 1 Evans 50

Arsenal (1) 2 Madueke 41, Eze 66

Arsenal's unlikely quest for four trophies remains on track after they came through a testing examination at League One Mansfield.

High quality strikes from Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze settled the outcome, but not before a display full of courage and zest from the team led by Nigel Clough.

Sometimes, getting the better of a town bursting with civic pride and excitement can be as challenging as taking on a big city rival and the Stags made sure their illustrious visitors knew they were in a game.

Mansfield Town's grand old Field Mill was determined to make the most of an all-too rare visit from one of the nation's true big guns and the yellow and blue bunting on display everywhere was a sign of their determination to make the most of every minute.

For Mikel Arteta, it was a vital opportunity to rotate after three testing Premier League matches. Gabriel - immense in recent games - was rightly rested ahead of this week's trip to Leverkusen, along with Declan Rice, among others.

The Gunners boss judged this the right time to give youngsters Marli Salmon and Max Dowman a taste of FA Cup mayhem.

Mansfield's enthusiasm for the task was not misplaced and their direct running caused problems as they rained eight shots at the Arsenal goal in the opening 15 minutes. Ryan Oates down the right gave Riccardo Calafiori a tough time.

From one of Oates' crosses, Kepa could only parry out and Louis Reed crashed a low shot back at him as the crowd held their breath, willing the net behind the keeper to ripple. Tyler Roberts curled just wide from outside the area and Oates hit a volley across the face of goal. Home fans believed.

Arsenal's line-up looked lop-sided, or at any rate top heavy with attacking players as Christian Norgaard held fort in midfield. They could have led in the opening minutes when Dowman almost capitalised on an error but shot straight at keeper Liam Roberts.

The teenager also missed out after a ball across from Leandro Trossard found him unmarked in the middle. His first-time shot was too weak to trouble Roberts.

The Gunners' broke the deadlock just before the break with a moment of class from Madueke - rifling high past Roberts after the Stags keeper had pushed his shot out to Gaby Martinelli for recycling back to the goalscorer.

But five minutes after the restart, this old ground came to life again with the equaliser from half-time sub Will Evans. The striker was gifted the ball by Salmon and raced past Cristhian Mosquera before rifling under Kepa.

The belief only grew when Jesus - fed by Dowman in a counter-attack - had a shot blocked on the line by Kyle Knoyle.

Unfortunately for the battling hosts, the man with e FA Cup magic in his boots came on to make it 2-1 to the Gunners.

Eze - scorer of the winning goal for Palace in last year's final - had just come on when he collected a Norgaard pass on the edge of the area, sidestepped a defender and arrowed a beauty into the top corner.

Stags: (3-4-1-2) Roberts - Knoyle (Hewittt 87), Oshilaja, Blake-Tracy - Akins, Russell, Reed, McLaughlin (Irow 82) - Abbott (Lewis 62) - Roberts (Evans h/t), Oates (Odeboyejo 82)

Gunners: (3-1-4-2) Kepa - Salmon (Timber 62), Mosquera, Calafiori (Dixon 77) - Norgaard - Madueke, Dowman (Saka 77), Trossard (Hincapie 38), Martinelli - Havertz (Eze 62), Jesus

Atttendance:9,260