Arsenal’s fourth consecutive away match since the season resumed is set for Sunday lunchtime kickoff at Bramall Lane in the quarterfinal round of the FA Cup. In the previous round, a match played on the 2nd of March shortly before the Covid-19 hiatus, Arsenal defeated Portsmouth away by 2-nil, thanks to goals either side of halftime by Sokratis and Nketiah. One day later the Blades reached this stage by defeating Reading away.
Mikel Arteta’s side were teetering on the precipice before this week’s tonic of an away win at Southampton. Arteta admitted as much saying “I was concerned with the way we threw the game away against Brighton – it really touched the team and confidence is everything in this game. But I could see that the reaction was really positive and we just demanded them to play together and enjoy themselves. It was an important win for us.”
The Gunners will need to make and take their chances at Brammall Lane to keep their confidence growing before Wednesday when they play their first home match since West Ham United on the 7th of March.
Facing Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United in an away Cup tie represents a stern test for this increasingly youthful Arsenal side, who must be tactically ready for the Blades’ unique style of play described below by Michael Cox.
Predicted Arsenal XI:
Between the posts Emi Martinez must continue to fill in for the injured Bernd Leno.
Despite David Luiz’ renewed availability after suspension we should expect to see the same defenders who effectively denied Southampton, namely: Bellerín, Mustafi, Holding and Tierney, if the latter recovers from the knock that saw him limp off in the second half against Saints. If Tierney is unfit Sead Kolasinac is ready to step in but there could also be another redemption opportunity on the cards for the former Chelsea man.
In midfield Granit Xhaka may partner Joe Willock with Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka providing pace on either flank. Eddie Nketiah should get a chance to lead the attack giving Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a rest and a chance to provide the team with fresh legs in the second half. Matteo Guendouzi appears not to have emerged from Arteta’s doghouse following the Brighton fracas, if media reports are to be believed.
The appointed referee is Paul Tierney, who in my admittedly hazy memory has not given us as many problems as several other referees of the current bunch. Let’s see what Mr. Tierney can do not to bugger our chances as Bramall Lane bays for blood.
Quick resolution is to be preferred so I am plumping for Nketiah to score twice in the first quarter of an hour and for Holding and company to see it out from there until Aubameyang scores from midfield to make it 3-0 at full time. But if things do not go quite according to plan, there are no replays at this stage so if the match is level after 90 minutes, there will be an additional 30 minutes of extra time, and a penalty shootout will decide a winner if the game is still level at 120 minutes.
But not to seem overly optimistic I should add the manager’s note of caution uttered this week: “There are a lot of things we have to learn. I know what this team can do but only when we are 100% focused and committed to what we do. If not, we are at the moment, average.”
Lastly, I commend to you the new-look preview https://www.arsenal.com/news/sheffield-united-v-arsenal-preview-goals-more at Arsenal’s official site for an abundance of features, historical tidbits and other socially distanced fun including the quiz, “Can you name Arsenal’s FA Cup quarter-final scorers since 2000?” I expect you will be able to provide more correct answers than I managed.
Cheers, ‘holics, cheer loudly at the good parts, and enjoy the game.
They might like to create overloads down the flanks. They may, or may not, like to ‘whip it in’ early (hey, this is a family blog isn’t it?).
But, bt8, they are nothing, but absolutely nothing without their greasy chip butty song and they won’t be earring that tomorrow. No contest. Semi-finals, here we come.
And yes, I think Tierney will start, both at LB and referee.
Good stuff bt8.
I tried the quiz; 20/30 – all bar 2 from the first column; I missed several embarrassing names from the second.
Bonus question: What did she ware?
Mantra for tomorrow: Believe. We are better than them. We shall overcome.
COYG UTA
There will be a lot of happy bunnies if we come away from this tie with a 3-0 win, and the ‘holic pound will do nicely as you can get 25s on that score. Sheffield United don’t ship many goals. They have the joint-third least number of goals conceded in the Premiership. The are not prolific at the other end of the pitch. Only four clubs have scored fewer goals than they have, but they are a point ahead of us for a reason. Given the number of draws both sides have racked up this season, this tie could easily go to extra time or even to penalties. But it would be nice to wrap it up 1-0 within the 90.
bt8: Paul Tierney has refed six of our games. We’ve won three, drawn two and lost one. Three of those six were earlier this season — the two draws and the loss. He’s refed nine Sheffield United games. They have won four, drawn three and lost two. Last time he took charge of one of our matches, the away game at Palace, he showed Auba a red.
pang@2, i got 23/30, missing edu and adams from the first column, arteta, ramsey, theo, gallas, and one other from the second. for the life of me i couldn’t remember theo and ramsey being arsenal. must be the covid…even january seems like, well, like six years rather than six months.
i’ll be happy bunny if we win on a last gasp 1-0 aet. though it might drive me to drinking rather early in the day, hahafornia time.
I missed Gallas and Van Persia from the quiz but just bombarded it with names ! Nice preview Bt8. Tierney the ref is one of the worst and no friend of ours . Tierney the player may return and we might play three at the back with him as wing back . The Blades have not been so sharp recently and I hope we can return with victory
and bt8, i’m remiss in not having thanked you for the fine preview. i do hope we see mus and holding, and the variable back 5 we saw in southampton. of course, if it doesn’t fit arteta’s plan to anneal the blades, i look forward to seeing what he has up his sleeve that does.
Cheers bt8 a fine preview for our cup visit to Bramall Lane. We will have to steel ourselves for a tough game against the blades but I’m sure we can handle it – let’s hope Billy Sharp & his compadres remain blunted.
I share TTG’s thought that the boss could play 3 at the back to accommodate the returning David Luiz. Alternatively with Hector not at his best he could move the much improved pantomime villain Mustafi to right back. The midfield & attack will probably be close to that which started at Southampton. My money will be on the one & only 1-0 to the Arsenal. COYG
An excellent preview bt8. I like your team selection but I’d prefer to start 11 players so would line Lacazette up alongside Nketiah, using Saka flexibly on the left in the same way he played against Southampton. I’d have PEA and Pepe ready to join the fray aif necessary in the second half.
You’re far more optimistic than I am about the score. Like scruz, I’ll be delighted to get out with a 1-0 win, especially if we can do so within the 90 minutes. I’ll be skipping around the village wearing an Arsenal shirt if we win 3-0!
Go win, Arsenal!
Very enjoyable bt8, with a quiz
thrown in at the end there.
I’ll give it a try after my Sunday
morning coffee.
Tough selection to predict.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see
either Saka or Auba rested.
Perhaps a surprise outing for
Macey in goal? Not sure if
Soares is fit. Anyway, on past
form I think MA will make 2
or 3 changes. Who knows we
may even see Guen or Ozil.
Sheff Utd have lost a couple
so let’s hope their confidence
is low, in that case your suggestion of a
of an early goal would be just
the ticket. I hope we can avoid
extra time.
Bath, You are right indeed, and Laca should have been in there as my 11th man. Don’t know what I was thinking but hope Arteta is thinking a bit more clearly. COYG
I forgot the score, I’ll go for the
same 2-0 that did for Pompey.
Score early, control the game
and put it to bed on the hour.
A very civilised kick off time
today – if you live in this time
zone. Off for dinner at a local
restaurant, some decent fish
washed down with local hooch.
Home in time to watch us show
our metal, hopefully a stainless
performance now we’ve ironed
out the rough spots. I expect we’ll
steel the tie and fork the blades
right off.
Nice preview. Hopefully we will be able to toast a second win and a semi final place.
I’m not sure if anything is planned but I hope there is some recognition of the Sad passing earlier this week of Theo Foley. His departure seems to have gone largely unnoticed by many. It would be quite pertinent to remind some that The Arsenal have a history that dates back before Sky and the Wenger days.
3-1 to the Gunners.
Martinez
Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, David Luiz, Tierney
Xhaka Willock Kolasinac
Pepe, Lacazette (c), B. Saka
Bench:
Macey, Bellerin, Sokratis, Holding, Smith, Ceballos, Nelson, Nketiah, Aubameyang
smith?
Starting team might line up 3-4-3 with AMM and Kola as the wind backs to counter the Sheffield flank overloading.
Martinez
Mustafi, David Luiz, Tierney
Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Willock, Kolasinac
Pepe, Lacazette (c), B. Saka
Wind backs? Spill chiucker!
hopefully they break like the wind…
and i’d love to have wind back!
Guendouzi joining Ozil under the red umbrella.
Excellent preview bt8. I thoroughly enjoyed reading that and it has set me up for the match.
I’ll join Matt in plumping for 2-0 to the good guys. Luiz to score a header from a corner.
smith: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.football.london/arsenal-fc/players/matt-smith-arsenal-squad-southampton-18317275.amp
huh.
As long as they are not winded backs, or, worse, wounded backs, Scuz.
And i would be good to hear from Wind again.
Must be cool, cloudy and early in your neck of the woods.
dark, too, ned. you must just be getting some sunlight. ready for roast breakfast? 🤣
Ozil, it seems has a bad back. FFS
Club says Ozil is not in the match squad because he has a back injury.
There is reportedly sun behind the clouds here, Scruz, but it has been light for some couple of hours now, even if the morning mist hasn’t really lifted yet.
C100@27: Must have been the strain of holding up that umbrella at So’ton.
I think that will be umbrella back.
I often forget to bring my umbrella back and that leads to nothing but pain.
he’s got a new kid, maybe it’s baby back (ribs)…
i was just about to ask if anyone was feeling nervous with this start. sigh.
Missing Holding already. Thank God for VAR.
dodged huge bullet there.
yeah, luiz not filling me with confidence.
BT sport commentator says “in the league Sheffield United are highly likely to finish ahead of Arsenal unless something highly unexpected happens”.
We are one point behind them with seven games to play.
Lacazette is not holding the ball up . His touch is awful
Midfield non existent and Laca/Pepe no threat. It’s been a shocking first 20.
weak penalty, i hope we make it.
c1000 our shape is all wrong.
It wasn’t that weak Scruz he got kicked
Good penalty
1-0. we are not deserving of the lead, sadly. nicely taken, pepe.
Clear penalty I thought Scruz. He’s gone right through Laca’s left leg. Good pen by Pepe. 25 minutes of crap and we’re 1-0 up. Fair enough.
That was a foul anywhere else on the pitch . Lacazette was hurt .Well taken Pepe
i dunno, i guess so atg. looked weak from here.
nice move, that deserved a goal. good save.
So far so good.
It’s a one off game and we
just need to win.
Typical cup tie
That’s better Arsenal keep it up lads
liking amn in his role and play today.
Best half of football I’ve seen from
Pepe . Impressive today
Best 45 in a long time. Some lovely moves. Decent defensive work after the early scare. Deserve our lead. Another goal might be useful though.
I missed first 20 minutes of this game but it sounds we were awful to begin with.
All in all we are up by a goal and had other chances to increase our lead. Hope we can can put them to sword in the second.
The goal settled the boys down and playing confidently now. Let’s keep it going for the second half. 🙏🏻
When Leno is back fit, can Martinez play out on pitch? He’s certainly got considerable more ability with the ball than the likes of Mustafi.
Not a great start to the second half
Almost conceded there. Need another goal.
Agree, too passive
agree on pepe. our second half start has been…difficult.
way too close for comfort.
We have given the initiative now lost control of the game completely
indeed, artur.
A great second chance for them in two minutes. We have lookEd very shaky in the second half.
Poor pass from AMN
amn has not looked as good at either end this half.
good game, joe. ceballos on. laca off for eddie. more dynamism in the center hopefully.
Our passing has been shit too, missing five yard passes.
Ceballos on for Willock and Nketiah on for Laca. COYG.
Willock has been great. Sorry to see him go off. Another day to forget for Laca though.
COYG!!!
agreed, btm, i’d rather have seen amn off. but joe did get his bell rung earlier so…
second time emi almost passed to a defender at the top of the box. stop that!
Laca got us the pen BtM but other than that poor display
Dirty twat
How was that not a foul on Kolasinac?
Typical f….. ARSENAL
jesus.
SU are level. Shit defending of a set piece. Looks like extra time.
Xhaka set that one up nicely for them. Tough to watch him, Mustafi and Kolasinac all on the field at the same time.
Nothing more than we deserved sadly. We look so vulnerable at the back it’s embarrassing.
Ceballos!!!!
daniiii
Rob missed the ball on the jump, Kolasinac kicked hit Mustafi their forward took advantage
Get in Ceballos
what a lovely goal!
Sokratis for Pepe. Need to hold on for five mins.
lock it down now.
why are they complaining? that could have been a yellow, iirc his second.
wemberley here we come!
Our first victory over SU of the season. Arteta looks relieved and happy as are all of us. That was close but the well taken goal by Ceballos settled it.
They were garbage without their greasy chips butty song. Never really a contest 🙂
Well that wasn’t pretty but Wembley here we come
You sense we dodged a bullet there in a weird game. Playing a team whose main ploy is set pieces and long balls into the box we only conceded once in ninety minutes despite looking exceptionally vulnerable every time the ball was knocked in. If we could have controlled midfield we could have torn them apart with our forward movement .
Pleased for Ceballos who took the goal very well.
We got away with it, I honestly thought we would have a much better second half. Instead we gave away the initiative and allowed them to play their game. It was a matter of time and we did the usual Arsenal defending and conceded. Three of our own couldn’t clear the ball.
Ceballos did great despite he has shown anything special throughout the game.
Job done, just about. Good to see the response to the Sheffield equaliser. That wouldn’t have happened six months ago.
they were a bunch of semi-refined cloggers. we were just enough more refined and held on, barely. but throw it all away, on to the grove for wednesday’s canaries and on to wembley in the merry merry month of…july.
We are somewhat indebted to VAR. Still, it is a cup-tie. Winning it is what matters.
The TTG pound would have come in .
Paddy Power must fear me – if I put money on games 😃
Not sure if Arteta is a defensive coach but we do defend very deep and with our defence I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense .
Woo hoooooo!!!
passes through the defense to…
Pepe’s penalty and Ceballos’s goal shows the quality that is lurking in the side, even if it was out of sight for most of that game.
🎗 🎗 🎗
In the Merry month of July
Another hard fought win. Despite some indifferent periods we battled hard throughout and snatched the win at the death – never a bad way to finish the game. There is some genuine talent there for Arteta to work with but most importantly he must find a way / new players to cut out the amount of stupid goal we concede – we must be tops in that particular league.
Well in there, Ned. Cool as you like.
Thanks, bt8, and a tip of the hat to Scruz for the penetrating assist.
Well in for the ton Ned after a perfect assist from Scruz – made in the U S of A 👏
nicely hit, ned, took it in your stride!
Good effort Arsenal enjoyed that in the end. Thought we were definitely the better team (after somewhat dodgy start) till they equalized, so win was all the more enjoyable!
Job done. Second half wasn’t very impressive and their goal was coming despite the serendipitous deflection. Bit of a stretch to blame Xhaka who had a fairly decent game imho. As did Martinez, AMN, Musttafi, Pepe and Saka. I thought he faded in the SH, but that was an excellent FH from AMN. I thought Tierney (FH & SH) and Whittock (FH) were excellent and Ceballos took his goal very well indeed.
Job done.
Onward.
Clearly two jobs done.
Same job, done twice?
Interesting and alarming in equal part comment by Martin Keown during the TV commentary that to get the most out of Luiz there is only one position in which he can play, in the middle of a back three.
Re: Uply. Unlikely selection of artistes? 😉
Well in Ned!
Very interesting how one’s views can change .
I was hugely impressed by Holding and Xhaka on Wednesday and very unimpressed with Ceballos. Today Holding didn’t look very secure in his relative cameo , Xhaka wasn’t disastrous by any means but gave so little offensively to the team and goal aside , Ceballos was bright and creative . He scored the goal because he was willing to run beyond their back four, a quality we desperately lack since the days of Ramsey and before him Freddie .
Also interesting that Leicester and Sheffield United are looking like flash in the pans after their form up until March . The Blades’ goal was a complete fluke with a joint assist by Kolasinac and Holding .
It would be handy if Citeh were somehow to go out tonight. . They are the only team left we can’t beat but it would be an interesting story for Arteta to play them in the FA Cup Final .
Finally Mrs TTG slowcooked a pork joint with quinoa ( get me!) and I washed it down with a couple of glasses of Pinot . My Sheffield Wednesday supporting mate things if Carlsberg did Sundays this would be the sort of one they’d produce !
COYG
Ned,
That may mean we play three at the back next year and explain why we signed Mari to play on the left. We might need Saliba , Mustafi, Luiz , Mari and Holding or Chambers next year and will lose Sokratis and Mavropanos and whoever loses out of the two Englishmen
Hi TTG. Interesting comments on Holding. You aren’t going to agree with my match report. I thought when he came on we looked much more solid at the back.
TTG@114: There is logic in what you say, and 3-4-3 might be a systemic answer to our absence of top-class creative playmaker. I noted that Kolasinac played for much of the Sheffield game as the left-sided CB with Tierney outside him as the left wing-back, which could be his position next season if it is indeed to be a back three by default. We’d probably need something better than Kola as his back up, though maybe that is Saka’s long-term position, rather than battling with Martinelli for the right-wing spot. We look a bit more threadbare on the right. Bellerin has not returned as the player he was. Cedric is an unknown quantity. AMN has proved solid enough when asked to play as either a right back or a right wing-back without looking an automatic first choice, even with Hector not at his finest. Osei-Tutu may be in the frame following the successful second half of his loan when he was converted from a full back to a right winger. Yet it would be a big jump for him to make the first-team squad.
Arsenal vs Man City. Just the team I wanted us to avoid.
That is assuming City beats Newcastle United (City leading by a goal at half time).
We stuffed them at Wembley before, we’ll stuff ‘em again.
I like your confidence, Countryman100 but find it difficult to believe, especially after our last match at City.
@108 I think you need to go back and look at their goal again, Professor Bath.
Classic Xhaka.
No danger in midfield until he dithers like Willie Miller on Union Street after a few sherbets too many. Instead of starting an attack from a great position, he puts us in a position where we end up at 1-1. Watch how slowly he tries to recover. Of course that error is compounded when Kola tries to use the leg he can only stand on and cannons the ball into Holding.
Neither of them good enough I’m afraid. Wouldn’t make it into any of the teams above us in the League. Maybe the Dons could do us a favour on a double deal?
I don’t think Citeh will beat us thrice in this sausage machine season. The Milk Sheik will be crapping it.
I fancy another trouncing of Robber Baron Roman’s Chel$ki mob in the final. I can see the headlines now:
“Fat Fwank Sick As A Parrot As Rob Holding Does Wembley Double Over Chel$ki”
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