Martin Keown fears Arsenal’s FA Cup fifth round win over Mansfield could come at a significant cost after Mikel Arteta’s side were pushed all the best way by their League One opponents.
The Gunners made nine changes to their starting line-up following Wednesday’s angsty win at Brighton which saw their lead at the highest of the Premier League extend to seven points.
A makeshift line-up struggled to adapt to a brand new formation on a boggy One Call Stadium pitch and it took until shortly before half-time for Noni Madueke to interrupt the deadlock.
Quite than representing the launchpad for a routine victory, Arsenal did not kick on and were rocked just five minutes after the restart when Will Evans pounced on a Marli Salmon mistake, roarded beyond Cristhian Mosquera and pulled his side level.
With the tie within the balance, Arteta made further changes and his substitutions ultimately paid dividends when Eberechi Eze fired home from the sting of the penalty area.
The visitors saw out the remaining period of the sport relatively comfortably and can now move on to an altogether different test after they face Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.
Arteta is, nonetheless, almost certain to be without Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard after the pair did not last the 90 minutes which got here as a significant concern to Keown.
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The previous Arsenal defender was asked to predict what number of trophies his old club would end the season with but he refused to be drawn and as an alternative focused on the damage that will have been brought on by two senior first team players sustaining setbacks.
He said: ‘Do you realize in the event you start talking about what number of you’re going to win it’s going to sound conceited.
‘They’re in 4 competitions they usually nearly went out today it was that close. Mansfield gave them an actual scare.
‘It’s just game to game and it’s been expensive with the injuries so the manager could have to lick their wounds a bit.’
Arteta, himself, was keen to praise the performance of Nigel Clough’s side who registered 18 attempts on the Arsenal goal and caused no end of problems.
‘It was a correct FA Cup game and credit to Mansfield the stadium and the atmosphere the fans created there was a little bit of banter,’ said the Arsenal boss.
‘They made it really difficult for us. If not, you have got to be more ruthless in front of goal than we were today.
‘The margin becomes smaller, and also you give hope to the opposition. We made a mistake on the goal which cost us the momentum and belief for them. Overall, pleased with the performance.
‘We’ve got two 16-year-olds within the starting line-up, which I don’t think has ever happened, and I’m very happy with them.
‘I believe everyone feels involved. We’ve got the will that, game by game, we will catch up with to the things that we will achieve.’
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