After the disappointment of Thursday night’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool, Arsenal haven’t had to wait long to get back out there and move on to the next game with a tricky lucking FA Cup tie coming up against Championship side Portsmouth this afternoon.
Aside from the draw against Liverpool, Arsenal’s form has been very good in the past few weeks and although there is likely to be a lot of rotation in the side, confidence will be high that they can do enough to see off Pompey.
Portsmouth have also just come back off the back of a disappointing result, after letting in 5 against Bristol City however, prior to that result, their form had been pretty decent as well, with two wins and two draws during the Christmas period.
Form aside, when a Championship (or lower) side welcomes a Premier League team to their home turf, you also feel like the whole club is going to put their heart and soul into causing an upset and Portsmouth will be determined to do just that when we head to the South Coast. Therefore Arsenal need to show the necessary respect and earn the right to take their place in the 4th round of the FA Cup.
Areas of encouragement
Liverpool aside, Arsenal’s attack has shown real signs improvement in the preceding fixtures, with 7 goals scored in two matches against Aston Villa and Bournemouth, so with Portsmouth also conceding 5 in their last run out, you would expect Arsenal to cause the Championship side’s defence some real problems this afternoon.
The depth of Arsenal’s squad, and the hunger of the so-called ‘second choice’ players, should also come into play in game’s like this. Players like Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke have found regular game time hard to come by of late, so this is a chance for them to show why they deserve to start every week.
Areas of concern
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m going to say (for the second game in a row) that I’m concerned about the weather!! As with the game against Liverpool, the forecast for this one is not good, with strong winds expected and I think that will play into Portsmouth’s hands hugely, as they will likely look to go long and feed off the havoc caused from the wind. Arsenal will have to get the ball down and play the game as we know how they can to give them the best chance to avoid falling foul of the conditions.
Over rotation is also a real concern here. How much will Mikel Arteta change? Probably quite a lot so we really need the players given a runout go out there and show why they deserve to start every week. Hopefully there will not be too much rust, as most of them have played a part in at least one of the fixtures in the past month.
What I’d love to see
One thing that came out of the Liverpool game that I was actually really happy about was the clean sheet, so I’d love to see us continue that and keep another clean sheet here.
I would also love to see the players who are given the nod put in top, top performances that give Mikel Arteta something to think about for the next league match. Too many times this season we come out of these games, where the lineup has been heavily rotated, and it being very clear that the rested players will come straight back in for the next game.
What I’d hate to see
Our game against Port Vale earlier in the season became quite uncomfortable towards the end of the game, despite our dominance, as we failed to finish off the League One side when we were on top. We can’t do that today, we need to be clinical and make our dominance count. Remembering back to when Portsmouth were in the Premier League, Fratton Park was a really difficult place to go and play and if we give Pompey any encouragement, the fans will really get behind their team.
I’d also hate to see us get involved and play their game. Portsmouth are likely going to try and make the game a bit scrappy and stop start with lots of free kicks so Arsenal need to play their own game, keep the tempo nice a quick when in possession and try and keep the fluency into their game.
Lineup and Team News
Always tough to predict the lineup for these games, but there’s a couple of players who will definitely come in. Kepa, Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Christian Norgaard, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Noni Madueke should all start here.
The real questions in terms of lineup will be who starts at centre back, as our depth is there lacking some what. Two players who we really need to be resting right now are Gabriel and William Saliba, but I think the current injuries to Cristhian Mosquera and Riccardo Calafiori mean that at least one them will have to start here.
I would rest Saliba, and I think Arteta will do the same, and then move Jurrien Timber into central defence, alongside Gabriel, with a view to subbing either Gabriel or Timber around 60 minutes to share the minutes out. There’s always a chance that Christian Norgaard could lineup at centre back again although I think he will needed at the base of midfield, so that Merino can play further forward.
Ethan Nwaneri will surely come back into the squad although I can’t see where he would start, with Eze and Merino operating in the advanced midfield positions and Madueke and Martinelli playing on the wings. Therefore Nwaneri will have to settle for a place on the bench, where he will hopefully be joined by Kai Havertz, with both hoping for key minutes this afternoon.
Predicted lineup:
Arrizabalaga
White
Timber
Gabriel
Lewis-Skelly
Norgaard
Merino
Eze
Madueke
Jesus
Martinelli
Substitutes:
Raya
Saliba
Rice
Nwaneri
Odegaard
Havertz
Trossard
Gyokeres
Saka
Key battle
I’m not going to profess to know a great deal about this Portsmouth squad, but going by their last few outings they seem to be playing wingbacks and one name in particular caught my eye. Zak Swanson, former Arsenal graduate, has lined up at left wing back in the last few games, so I’m sure Swanson will be desperate to show Arsenal what they missed out on, so I’m going to see the key battle is going to be how Noni Madueke does up against Swanson. It’s always nice to see our former youth players go on to form fine careers away from the club, but let’s hope that today Swanson has an off day!!
PREDICTION
I know there has been some big scorelines between Premier League sides and teams from lower down the pyramid, but I don’t expect that here. Think this one will be a tough game, which Arsenal will do just enough to get through to the next round. I’m going 2-0 to The Arsenal.