Four
days later and we’re back on the FA Cup trail once more to play the cup holders
Arsenal at St Mary‘s. Memories come flooding back of a particularly grim FA Cup
experience at home to the Gunners when under Claude Puel, we put out the worst
11 we could possibly put out and got beat 5-0. Lloyd Isgrove played. It was
that bad. A Mr T. Walcott scored a hat-trick
for the Gunners.
Most of the interest today will centre on whether both teams will put a first
choice 11 out today or whether they will rotate with Tuesdays league game in
mind. I’d be surprised if Arsenal rotate too much because at the end of the
day, it was winning the cup that gave Arteta a bit of grace this season when
things were not going very well. However, on the other hand, things are picked
up in the league for Arsenal so maybe they will want to prioritise that to try
make a late run into the European places. I just hope that Cedric is playing. As for us – we don’t have much choice so I’m
more or less expecting us to line up as if this was a league game.
With everyone in the media pushing the Danny Ings contract situation at the
moment, it was a bit of a change to see another first-team player linked away
with Ryan Bertrand being linked with a move to, surprise surprise, Arsenal.
Isn’t it strange how these rumours spring up just before we are about to play whoever
the player has been linked with?
Happened with Hojbjerg last season when we played Spurs. Ryan is available today before his suspension
for the league game so he will definitely be in the side and speculation as to
whether he would happily go to Arsenal and play second fiddle to Tierney can
wait for another day.
It's BT Sport today with the dream commentary duo of Ian Darke Skate Bastard
and Martin Keown Arsenal Legend. This is
going to be as impartial as it gets. Get
ready with your NineNilBingo cards. The teams
are in and with the exception of Fraser Forster in goal, we have the full side
out, whereas Arsenal have hit the rotate button. Elneny in midfield and Pepe and Willian and
Nketiah are in the side instead of Partey, Saka, Lacazette and Aubameyang. The crowning glory of the Arsenal side is
that Tierney is out and fucking InstaCedric is at left back. He’s shit at right back, let alone left
back. Still, it will be good to see him
trying to justify that 4 year contract he’s got and it’s that old Phil Neville thing
– being crap in multiple positions does not make you versatile.
Away we go and the first incident of the game is Gabriel trying to shield the
ball from Ings and kind of slapping him in the face. Darke and Keown think he’s just protecting
the ball but I don’t really see how you do that by putting your hand in someone’s
face. Anyway, we move on and win a corner
on the right. JWP takes it and either by
accident or design, slices across the ball and produces an inswinger from the
right and it nearly catches Leno out who suddenly shites himself and gets nowhere
near it as it hits the bar at the near post.
There a brief chance of something really nasty happening as Willian gets down
the right. He looks offside but we carry
on as you do and the ball eventually finds Cedric coming in from the left. I swear I’m going to kick the TV in if that
twat scores but he hits it at the moon and then sure enough, it’s offside. Arsenal have another chance a couple of
minutes later as Pepe chips in a free kick from our right and we all play
statues, allowing Martinelli to spring the trap but luckily, he plays an
airshot and the ball just plops to Fraser.
We really have to look at how we defend free-kicks from wide areas as it’s
just a matter of time.
As you’d expect, Saints are in the main looking the more cohesive out of the
two sides and Adams makes a chance which is all his own work as he picks the
ball up on the half way line out to the right and bullies past Cedric before
knocking it past the static and hopelessly off balance Gabriel. “FUCKING HIT IT!!” yells everyone on the sofa
and he does but it’s too close to Leno who gets down well and gets a strong
hand on it. Bollocks. What a goal that would have been.
Onwards and Arsenal are pissing about on their right, trying to play out but
Elneny isn’t good enough for that and gets dispossessed by Armstrong. His hair is fine and he finds JWP who I
expect to shoot but he moves it on to KWP who goes to fire in a cross low and
it goes through Cedric’s legs, hits something and yessssss, in it goes under
the keeper. It has a very ‘own goal’
feel to it and the replay confirms that Gabriel has very kindly diverted it
under Leno and given him no chance. The
Cup holders are behind.
Saints are flying now and work another really good chance with KWP again giving
Cedric nightmares and his cross is volleyed by Ings but deflected wide for a corner
which comes to nothing much. Cedric compounds
his uselessness by appearing 5 yards behind every other Arsenal defender and
allowing Walcott to put Holding under pressure.
It looks like it’s a corner but the ref strangely gives a goal-kick. There is still time for the tight shirted boy
band wannabe wanker to make a difference at the other end by demonstrating his
phenomenal crossing. With pinpoint
accuracy, he twice picks out Nketiah at the back post, if only Nketiah had been
on a very large pogo stick 30 yards up in the air.
Half time and we’ve been very good.
There is the nagging feeling that Arsenal can only get better and they
will be sending the cavalry on at some point and we probably need a second
goal. I’m just imagining those goons on
Arsenal Fan TV giving it loads about everything.
I thought that £72 million Pepe was supposed to be a bit of a flyer, so it’s a
bit of a shock when Diallo runs him off the ball. Actually it’s not a shock at all – Diallo is
superb and reads the game ridiculously well and Pepe doesn’t exactly looked
blessed with football intelligence.
We go all Route 1 as Fraser smashes a clearance over everyone and Ings is clean
through. He hits it early and it beats
Leno, hits the post, hits Leno and dribbles wide of the post. It’s given offside and bizarrely, the ref
appears to give a goal kick… and it doesn’t look offside on the replay. Well at least we all know what’s going on as
the Arsenal cavalry arrives with Partey and Saka on for Martinelli and Elneny.
Arsenal are immediately energised and Holding has a chance and lashes it over
the bar after a corner. Saints are
getting pinned back a bit now but the pressure is eased as Cedric goes all Under-12s
park football and gets pulled for a foul throw for the second match
running. Cock.
We are digging in now and only offering sporadic attacks – Armstrong, Adams and
Ings combine to give Walcott the chance to make it safe but it’s miles over.
The scares are getting more frequent now and even Pepe plays a good ball into
Nketiah and his attempted toe poke finish deflects off of Stephens and is on
target but doesn’t get past the big boot of Fraser and wide it goes. From the corner there’s a half hearted shout
for handball against KWP which is never going to be given. The thing about this one is that it
illustrates how crap the rule was at the start of the season when it would have
been a penalty. Meanwhile, Arsenal make
their last change with Lacazette coming on for Bellerin which means that Cedric
can go and be shite over the other side.
It’s time for Saints changes and N’Lundulu and Long come on for Adams and
Ings. Something strange happens and Long
is looking like the Long from before this season as he’s looking a pest. He attacks on the left side and gets inside
of the box and it looks like a blatant dive as the ball runs out of play but
when they show the replay Holding has clearly clipped him and that should be a
penalty and unbelievably, there is no penalty and we get a corner. One thing for sure is that Holding was
nowhere near the ball so if it’s not a foul then it’s a goal-kick so that is
absolutely fucking mental. It was
slightly surreal and I thought I must have imagined it. Shane keeps up the good work by wasting some
time in the corner with JWP and generally delaying things and being a
shithouse.
90 minutes are up and there’s only three to be added on. There is some pressure coming on us but not
too bad and just the one chance as Nketiah takes a wild swing at a ball in the
box and smashes it over. The End. Get In.
Darke and Keown sound suitably pained at the final whistle. To be fair, Keown has been ok in terms of
being partisan as he clearly rates us and Ralph and is not shy of saying so – as
opposed to a commentator like Carragher and Neville who only commentate on
their own team. Keown did however come
out with a classic, calling our injured player Romario instead of Romeu. Darke of course, being the Skate that he is,
found a way to get the 9-0 in there even though it was a) in 2019 and it’s now
2021, b) against a different team and c) in a different competition.
A thoroughly professional and well ground out result from the boys today.
Totally deserving of the result for the way they approached it and Arsenal
quite frankly never really looked like scoring.
Straight up I have to mention that Ralph prioritised the game that was
in front of him and Arteta prioritised the one that’s coming on Tuesday night.
The trouble now for Arteta is now that if Saints again beat Arsenal on Tuesday
night then he looks a right prick. There are so many examples through time of
clubs rotating in players because they’re thinking of the second game and they
end up losing both.
Again it was a performance built on everyone doing their job and everyone
playing to something approaching their full potential. Some were better than
others of course with the standouts for me being Bednarek, Diallo KWP and
JWP. No one was bad though - even the
substitutes and even Shane Long who put in his best cameo of the season,
working hard, being a shit house and he should’ve had a penalty for the clumsy foul
by Holding.
How the fucking hell the referee can give a corner after the penalty incident
with Shane Long is totally beyond me and if it goes to VAR, which I assume it
did, then how can it not be given as a penalty given that there was contact and
Holding was nowhere near the ball? Mind you he gave a corner to Arsenal when Nketiah
punched a ball onto Bednarek and out of play so I’m not surprised by anything anymore.
Anyway, we don’t need to worry about that because we are through the 5th Round
for an away game at Wolves.
And what of Cedric. Well he was absolutely gash as you knew he was going to be. Crosses sailing 40 yards over everyone’s head and out of play on the other side and he topped it all off with a foul throw for the second game running. This is some achievement bearing in mind that there are about two foul throws given across the whole of the Premier League per season usually. Arsenal however have been winning that stat this season though, having committed seven foul throws. Hilarious. We didn’t score a back post header but maybe we can save that for Tuesday.
It’s a different game on Tuesday of course and Arsenal will have a different line-up which will include the likes of Aubameyang, Smith-Rowe, Lacazette, Saka and Partey from the start. The pressure is now right on Arsenal though so maybe we can go out and enjoy and win that game and make Arteta look a bit stupid for not really trying to win this one and thinking he could beat us with his reserves. We’re not a bad side you know.
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