.png)
4 hours ago
2
Mikel Arteta knows the score. There is a reason why Arsenal’s trip to Mansfield Town on Saturday is the tie of the FA Cup fifth round, why it has been selected by TNT Sports for a 12.15pm kick-off. It has all the ingredients and everybody – Arsenal fans aside – is looking for an upset. Arteta was asked whether he was clear on that point. “Yes,” the Arsenal manager replied.
It has always been this way when a top club visits a minnow and, to repeat, the plotlines are certainly there for this one. Mansfield are 16th in League One, too close to the relegation line for the comfort of the manager, Nigel Clough. The Stags have gone nine league matches without a win.
Arsenal are chasing the quadruple and there was a revealing moment when Clough considered the chasm in quality between the squads. “We drew Arsenal here in the FA Youth Cup and they beat us 4-1,” he said of a third-round tie played in December. “There were two or three playing that night who would cause us problems in our first team.”
Arteta is expected to make wholesale changes as he manages a congested schedule; his team play at Bayer Leverkusen in their Champions League last 16 first leg on Wednesday. So maybe that will even the playing field a little – although it would only be a little. Arsenal have possibly the deepest squad in England. The playing field, meanwhile, at Field Mill is not up to Premier League standards, to say the least. Perhaps that could be a factor.
There is something else at play, a narrative that picked up further steam as Arsenal won at Brighton on Wednesday. The club have a target on their back, partly because of their dominance in every competition thus far, partly because of how they have achieved it. Everyone seems to be firing at it.
When the Brighton manager, Fabian Hürzeler, complained before, during and after the game about Arsenal’s time-wasting tactics, he did more than echo the complaint made by Wolves in their notorious TikTok post – the one that criticised Arsenal for their ‘game management”. Hürzeler ensured the spotlight was on Arsenal whenever they delayed a restart, especially a corner; whenever one of their players went down with a knock. For spotlight, please read fan anger.
How does anyone think the Mansfield crowd will react to any perceived shenanigans from Arsenal? It is unlikely to be with respect for the most high-profile visitors to their ground since Liverpool beat them there in the FA Cup third round in 2013.
Arteta will simply narrow the focus. His idea is to prepare thoroughly and embrace every aspect of the challenge, which includes swotting up on Clough and Mansfield. “I’m always very interested when I read the reports to understand the history, the tradition, the values that a club has,” he said. “To understand better, as well, what they will try to do.”
There will be a palpable sense of time and place for Mansfield, a desire to savour the moment. It is 51 years since the club played in the FA Cup fifth round – they were beaten by Carlisle – and only once have they made it to the quarter-finals. That was in 1969, when they won 3-0 against West Ham in round five before losing to Leicester, the eventual runners-up. The West Ham result is arguably Mansfield’s most famous. People in the town still talk about when their team beat opponents containing three World Cup winners – Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.
The cups have created more memories for Mansfield this season, starting with a Carabao Cup victory at their local rivals Chesterfield before a trip to Everton in the next round. It was the first cup tie to be played at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Clough’s team lost 2-0. In the FA Cup, there was drama in the opening rounds as they edged past Harrogate and Accrington Stanley – the latter on penalties – before the away wins over Sheffield United and Burnley.
Arteta talked about the need to adapt to the occasion, although he seemed unconcerned about the pitch, saying he and his squad all had experience from their formative years of playing at these type of venues. “It’s normal, it’s the beauty of this competition,” he said.
Would a playing surface ever affect his selection? “It can do,” Arteta said. “Especially if there is a player that is carrying some injury … the pitch can affect him in the wrong way, especially certain muscles. Hopefully we’re going to have the ones that we need fit and available.” He added that it was unlikely he would risk William Saliba, who has an ankle problem.
Arteta has been in England long enough to know that the underdog can have its day. He is just determined that it will not be this day because an FA Cup exit can have an impact on other competitions.
“It can,” Arteta said. “Hopefully, we’re going to do what we have to do and earn the right to win the game. We’ve been knocked out a few times in a difficult way and it’s a terrible feeling. It feels like it damages your reputation. So, yeah, you don’t want to go through that.”
