A youthful Arsenal are into the next round of the FA Cup after seeing off Mansfield Town and there was plenty to learn for Mikel Arteta from the game.
Arteta opted with a very young team which included two sixteen-year-olds in Mari Salmon and Max Dowman.
In the end, it needed goals from the more experienced pair of Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze and there was plenty for the Arsenal boss to digest.
Who was your Man of the Match against Mansfield?
Arsenal’s future is in very safe hands
The fact Arteta is confident enough to throw in the likes of Dowman and Salmon shows just how good the future is for this Arsenal team.
In a way, playing them against a seasoned League One team like Mansfield is better for these young players than any amount of under-21 games.
Dowman was the obvious standout as he looked brilliant in the middle of the park, creating chances for his team-mates and looking like a seasoned performer.
Salmon, meanwhile, continues to impress and while his immediate future isn’t going to be dislodging the likes of Saliba or Gabriel, he looks to have a huge future ahead of him.
Arsenal cannot play with a back three
Mikel Arteta clearly used this game to experiment a touch and his decision to go with three defenders very much showed this.
However, the Gunners did struggle for the opening 30 minutes especially and it wasn’t until Piero Hincapie replaced Leandro Trossard in the 38th minute and Arsenal reverted to a back four that they settled into the game.
For now, this has answered any question Arteta had about his team being a back-three squad. It needs binning for now, otherwise they’ll end up punished when it matters.
Premier League class will always tell in the end
For all the gusto Mansfield showed in the first-half and even when they got back into things just after the break, it was Arsenal’s Premier League quality that shone through.
Madueke took his goal well when it looked like the Gunners would go into the break level.
As for Eze, it took him less than five minutes to make his mark as he continues to show he’s the man for the big occasion in terms of when Arsenal need a goal.
Sure, it might not have been the rout many expected but with a much changed team and a Mansfield side riding high off some excellent FA Cup results already this season, this was a big win for Arsenal.
The focus can now shift again and it means that the quadruple is very much still on.
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