Mansfield Town vs Arsenal – Match Preview
League One outfit Mansfield Town host the Premier League leaders Arsenal in the FA Cup. The Stags come into this fixture on a poor run, having won 1 in their last 10 matches. However, that 1 win came against Premier League outfit Burnley away from home in this competition. The Yellows, as a result of their dire form, are in a relegation scrap. Nigel Clough’s side sit 5 points above Leyton Orient who take up the first of the relegation places. Arsenal come into this fixture off the back of 10 games unbeaten and now sit 7 points clear of Manchester City following their 2-2 draw against relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, while Arsenal beat Brighton on the road. Bukayo Saka got the only goal in a rather unconvincing offensive performance, but another dominant defensive display. Mansfield Town kicked off their FA Cup campaign with a 3-2 home win against League Two and were then drawn another League Two outfit in Accrington Stanley, away from home, and after a 2-2 draw over 120 minutes, Mansfield progressed on penalties. In the following round, Mansfield faced Championship outfit Sheffield United away from home, where, rather unexpectedly, they edged a 7-goal thriller, winning 4-3. And in the 4th round, the Nottinghamshire outfit beat Premier League opposition Burnley 2-1 away from home, with goals coming from Oates and the other coming from Reed, who has 3 goals in this season’s FA Cup. In the 3rd round of the FA Cup, Arsenal beat Championship side Portsmouth 4-1, after going 1-0 down through an early goal from Bishop. Dozzell scored an own goal and Martinell scored a hat-trick in a comfortable afternoon for the Gunners. And in the 4th round, Arsenal saw off League One outfit Wigan Athletic in N5. Goals from Madueke, Martinelli, an own goal from Hunt and a chip from Jesus gave Arsenal a 4-0 win, setting up a meeting with Mansfield Town at the One Call Stadium. Nigel Clough ahead of Arsenal clash: “We can’t know what sort of team they’ll pick.” “When you’re trying to win the Premier League and the Champions League, the FA Cup will be down the pecking order. With their 25-man squad, they could pick any 11 to wipe the floor with us without breaking sweat. “We can watch Arsenal for their last 10 games. It would just frighten the life out of us. We’ll do some rudimentary work on corners. We know roughly how they’re going to come in, whatever their personnel. But if top Premier League teams can’t deal with them, I don’t know how a bottom-half League One side is meant to. I don’t want the players worrying unduly. There’s only one ball coming in at any one time. Deal with it.” Mikel Arteta on Arsenal’s win against Brighton: “It’s a huge win. We knew how tough it was going to be. We’re coming back from a very difficult game with a lot of intensity, with players really going through the line in every game, with difficulties, not able to train and to come here and get the result that we got, I think it’s remarkable.” On Bukayo Saka: “Unbelievable. Unbelievable numbers at his age to produce the amount of games, to do it in the manner that he’s done it and the stats that he’s got related to those games is just incredible. So a big night for him.”
‘If we play like the 50 minutes that we did – then the 7,500 will be quiet’ – Rohl aims to silence the Celtic fans
Danny Rohl aims to silence the 7,500 travelling Celtic fans in this Sunday’s Old Firm Scottish Cup quarter-final showdown at Ibrox. It will be the largest Celtic support at Ibrox in eight years. The Light Blues currently trail Hearts by six points and have only won one of their last four games. Rohl’s men blew a 2-0 lead to the Celts last week after dominating the first half but conceded a late equaliser as Reo Hatate scored from the penalty rebound to salvage a point. The German head coach was asked in his pre match press conference if the Hoops’ allocation will have an impact on the game “Of course it will have. But if we play 50 minutes like we did then the 7,500 will also be quiet. “I think this is the part in the game where you feel it. We influence, we can influence, we can make the impact on our performance on the pitch. “The atmosphere was incredible for 50 minutes, really incredible. It was amazing to feel this. “We pushed our players forward, forward. Then it comes to 2-1 and you feel it in the stadium as well. But this is also part of the game. Maybe we can do it together, that we come through these small minutes where you feel the opponent comes in better into the game. But this 50 minutes was really, really outstanding. I really enjoyed this, to be in the touchline in such a game.” The 36-year-old knows that if the Ibrox club are to progress to the semi-finals they can’t have a drop off in performance like last week. “I think when you ask me how should be a Rangers team in the future all the time, then we bring our level versus Hearts and also versus Celtic in a really good way. “This is the most important key, I said this many times. If we can do this, keep going, then it will be tough to beat us in the future.”
