{"id":387,"date":"2020-03-01T19:33:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T19:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/goonerholics\/?p=387"},"modified":"2020-03-01T19:33:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T19:33:57","slug":"%ef%bb%bfall-cannons-to-the-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=387","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffAll Cannons to the Port"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image courtesy of stadiumguide.com<\/a><\/center><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What a difference a few days can make.  Arsenal will now be looking\nat their 5th round FA Cup away tie with\nPortsmouth quite differently than they would have been thinking about it prior\nto last Thursday\u2019s disappointing exit from Europa League competition at the\nhands of Olympiakos.  Mikel Arteta\u2019s\nmandate for the players will be to set Arsenal back onto a positive course, and\nto refocus their energy on one of the two competitions the club is still\ncontending: Premier League and FA Cup.  Since there was nothing the\nGunners could do about the Premier League over the weekend as rival clubs\npicked up points in the table, concentrating on Portsmouth is their only\nconstructive course of action.  The Gunners advanced to this point by\ndefeating Leeds United at home in the 3rd round, and Bournemouth away in the\n4th round, and come into the tie knowing Portsmouth will feel they have nothing\nto lose but everything to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nMonday evening match represents only the fourth time these clubs have been\ndrawn against each other in the FA Cup.  The precedents came in 1932 when\nArsenal travelled to Portsmouth and emerged with a 0-2 win, in 1971 when\nArsenal drew 1-1 at Portsmouth but won the replay at Highbury, and in 2004 when\nArsenal again travelled to Fratton Park and won by a score of 1-5, with Thierry\nHenry scoring a hat trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth\nwere FA Cup winners just 12 years ago when Sol Campbell marshaled Pompey\u2019s\ndefence at Wembley, and another Arsenal legend, Nwankwo Kanu, scored the only\ngoal of the game to win it for Portsmouth.  But financial crisis soon set\nin, and Pompey were relegated in 2010.  In very short order Portsmouth\nwere relegated two more times, landing in League Two in 2013 while nearly going\ndefunct as a club due to financial improprieties.  In 2017 the south coasters won promotion back\nto League One where they have stayed under manager Kenny Jackett, who in his\nfirst two seasons led Pompey to 8th and 4th place finishes in the table.  Last\nseason they missed a chance for promotion to the Championship by losing in the\nplayoff semifinals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season\u2019s Portsmouth moved up to 3rd\nplace in the League One table on Friday night with a 3-0 home win against Rochdale. \nPompey sit only two points behind the leaders so the FA Cup is not the only\ncompetition they are contending at the moment with automatic promotion or a\nplayoff spot up for grabs.  In addition, Portsmouth are still involved in\nthe EFL Trophy where they are defending champions, and on 18 February they\nreached the final with a 3-2 home win against Exeter City.  Pompey may\nstill be competing in three competitions, but a home FA Cup tie against Arsenal\nis no doubt a highly anticipated event for Portsmouth\u2019s management, players and\nfans.  Arsenal have won the FA Cup 13 times, more than any other club,\nincluding six times since the turn of the century (2002, 2003, 2005, 2014, 2015\nand 2017).  The feel of the occasion should be all the more special being\na contest of relative minnows against giants, and its Monday evening scheduling\ncan only add to the sense of drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nFA Cup 4th round Portsmouth also played at home, and defeated Barnsley by 4-2\nafter leading 2-0 at halftime.  In their three previous rounds Portsmouth\ndefeated Harrogate, Altrincham and Fleetwood.  Pompey\u2019s most dangerous\nattacking threat is Republic of Ireland international left-winger Ronan Curtis,\nwho has scored 11 goals and added five assists in league play this season. \nIn FA Cup play Curtis has added an assist and two goals, including one of\nPompey\u2019s goals against Barnsley.  Portsmouth\u2019s other standout attacking\nthreats include centre-forwards John Marquis and Ellis Harrison, who have\nscored 13 and 10 goals respectively in all competitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Selection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel\nArteta is expected to rest several players who faced Olympiakos, and looked\nlike they had very tired legs by game\u2019s end.  At left back, Bukayo Saka\nmay deserve a rest after playing all 120 minutes on Thursday but Arsenal have\nno obvious replacement for him with Sead Kolasinac out injured and Kieran\nTierney having just returned to training on Friday.  We can expect Saka to\nplay unless Arteta opts to play Granit Xhaka in that position, which would\nforce him to reshuffle the midfield.  Hector Bellerin may be rested in\nfavour of Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right back. Shkodran\nMustafi left the game injured halfway through extra time against Olympiakos and\nis likely to miss out, with Sokratis Papastathopolous ready to replace him in\nthe centre of defence.  The Greek international could be partnered by\nPablo Mar\u00ed, who is poised to make his debut after joining Arsenal in the\nJanuary transfer window, but Rob Holding could feature if Arteta decides the\nSpaniard is not ready.  Emiliano Mart\u00ednez\ncould replace Bernd Leno in goal, if only to keep the German on his toes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nmidfield Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira may come in for Dani Ceballos and\nMesut \u00d6zil.  So long as Arteta doesn\u2019t move Xhaka to\nleft back, I would expect to see him continue as our remaining midfielder. \nIn the attacking positions, Nicolas Pepe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and\nAlexandre Lacazette may all get a rest, with their most likely replacements\nbeing Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Martinelli, but Reiss Nelson could\nalso play a role in this contest.  On Saturday four first team players\u2014Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Pablo Mar\u00ed, Rob\nHolding, and Reiss Nelson\u2014each played 45 minutes against Manchester City for\nthe U-23 team, and any of them could play at least another 45 minutes at\nFratton Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holics\u2019 pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portsmouth\nseem to have a feel-good factor working at the moment, and will hope to catch\nArsenal on the rebound from their Europa League exit four days ago, but seeing\nas they are two levels below us and we need to let off some steam, the verdict\nmust be 1-3 to the Arsenal with Martinelli scoring twice and Nketiah tapping in\nthe coup de grace at the death.  Come on Arsenal, put them to the sword! \nA Cup win would make this week a little less harsh, and help keep two hands\nfirmly on the tiller in the maelstrom of what\u2019s to come in the rest of the\nseason.  Wherever you are watching the match \u2018holics, keep spirits high,\nyour Arsenal-supporting voices loud, and make it a good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a difference a few days can make.  Arsenal will now be looking at their 5th round FA Cup away tie with Portsmouth quite differently than they would have been thinking about it prior to last Thursday\u2019s disappointing exit from Europa League competition at the hands of Olympiakos.  Mikel Arteta\u2019s mandate for the players will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}