Arsenal revert to being the great entertainers in memorable meeting with Mansfield Town

Mansfield Town (0) 1 v Arsenal (1) 2

FA Cup

Fifth Round

Talking Points

By Kaz Mochlinski at Field Mill

Arsenal’s first ever visit to the oldest professional football ground in the world was highly likely to be an unusually special occasion, but the extent of the enjoyment for everyone involved turned out to be quite unique.

Games have been played at Field Mill since 1861 and perhaps from back as far as 1850, yet somehow Arsenal avoided any encounters there until now. Fittingly, finally when they came to this part of Nottinghamshire, it was as the best team in the land.

The Gunners achieved their objective of the afternoon to remain on course for a remarkable quadruple, while a first appearance in the fifth round of the FA Cup in more than half a century was still memorable for Mansfield Town despite their 1-2 defeat.

The Stags are only 16th in League One, just five points above the relegation places, but, prior to the current cup run under their popular manager, Nigel Clough, they had previously reached the last 16 in 1975.

“This is what football is” the host club’s chief executive, Carolyn Radford, reflected. “Days like this, which mean everything. You have all those unglamorous matches, rainy Tuesday games away, with a four- or five-hour drive back home.

“Just to get up for work the next day. For supporters and for us it makes everything worthwhile, and shows that it doesn’t matter if expectations say you shouldn’t do something.”

Mikel Arteta relished the experience to an equal extent. The Arsenal manager always takes time to read up on the history of new opponents and venues after completing his side’s technical and tactical preparations for such assignments - and it shows.

“Well, it was a great occasion. I think that game exemplifies the history of the FA Cup, the difficulty of that and the beauty of that. First of all, because they made it really hard, so big credit to Nigel and the team and the way they played.

“Because of the pitch, they have to adapt as well. Because of the energy that the supporters put in, which I think was extraordinary. The intensity, the banter at times, the interactions, and the belief that they put in towards the team.

“And then because you really have to earn it. And we had moments where it should have been two or three, when you don’t close the games and they have hope and belief, that becomes more and more dangerous.

“And, after they equalised in the game, you really have to dig in to earn the right to win.”

It would undoubtedly have been easier if Arteta had not made nine changes to his starting XI, and not played a back three for the first time in four and a half years - an experiment that only lasted for little more than half an hour.

The formation reverted to the normal 4-1-4-1 / 4-2-3-1 when Leandro Trossard was replaced by Piero Hincapié. Trossard began in the double pivot, but was the first of two Gunners to go off with injuries, followed in the second half by Riccardo Calafiori.

The list of Arsenal’s absent players already included Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Martín Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Gabriel Magalhães, William Saliba, Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and David Raya, none of whom travelled to Mansfield.

Instead, Arsenal were the first Premier League club to have two starters aged 16 or under in any competitive match, as Max Dowman became the Gunners’ youngest-ever FA Cup player, and Marli Salmon made his first start.

So Mansfield had the prestige of welcoming the Premier League leaders, but in a line-up that enabled the home team to make a real contest of the cup tie for the whole of the 90 minutes. There was genuine jeopardy, and it was absorbingly dramatic.

Field Mill witnessed Arsenal as entertainers, providing the perfect antidote to all the accusations aimed at them about winning ugly after a much less watchable spectacle in the league victory at Brighton & Hove Albion three days earlier.

Part of the beauty of the FA Cup nowadays is that it allows such risk taking in a way which is not possible in the Premier League. And ultimately Arsenal triumphed with two superb strikes from a pair of England internationals in Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze.

Mansfield’s ground is tucked in between a nature reserve and a retail park, a potential reflection of modern Britain more generally. Arsenal’s visit to Field Mill similarly demonstrated some of the best and worst aspects of modern football.

An awkward kick-off time demanded for tv coverage, and a much-changed teamsheet missing many superstars, contrasted by the continuing allure of the FA Cup in bringing the country’s top club to one of its footballing outposts.

Friendly, surprisingly competitive, and completely unforgettable.