Nick Ames was at St Mary’s, and his report has landed. You know the drill: clickity click! Thanks for reading this MBM.
A dejected Mikel Arteta takes his turn. “I am really sad to be out of the competition. Congratulations to Southampton. I am disappointed with the way we lost the game. We conceded in an area where we cannot give the ball away. We had a lot of unforced errors. We had two or three important moments in the first half but we didn’t hit the target. In the second we had two or three really big chances but not enough to win the game. The way we conceded the goal was our own fault. We have to do a lot better but it was a lesson. In the second half we became much more dominant but it wasn’t enough. We are looking in the market, we are short in one or two positions, let’s see what we can do.”
Hasenhuttl was right about the penalty. Replays clearly show Holding clipping Long’s boot, which is something you’d have expected the pernickety VAR system to have picked up. (Hey, I don’t like it any more than you, but this is where we are.) On BT Sport, resident expert Peter Walton reckons it wasn’t given because there was no “clear evidence”. Eh? There it is, on film. Thankfully it won’t be much of a controversy, though had Arsenal equalised you’d have heard plenty about it.
Ralph Hasenhuttl on BT: “We had more punch, more power in the first half. In the second half, they got a lift and made a few good subs. It was a clear penalty for me, that would have killed the game. Our players really worked hard for this cup win. Our intensity is our philosophy. In general our work was very good, very committed. If you want to win you have to invest a lot. We showed we could do it for 90 minutes.”
Saints captain and man-of-the-match James Ward-Prowse, speaks to BT Sport: “It’s a good feeling for us. To come past Shrewsbury was difficult enough, but to play a team like Arsenal was difficult and I think we deserved to win. Our pressing was very good. We lacked that second goal to kill the game, but from front to back we were solid. Our decision-making was good. We believe we can do it against anyone. They had spells of possession but we came through it very well. Lots of positives to take from the game. A good tie in the next round, and we’re looking forward.”
Saints thoroughly deserve that victory. They were much the better side for the first hour, the Walker-Peters shot / Gabriel own goal the least they deserved for their well-executed high press. Arsenal finally found some rhythm during the closing stages, after throwing Partey and Saka on, but it proved too little, too late. There may be a few questions asked about Arteta’s starting XI, given Arsenal’s significant improvement after their reshuffle, but take nothing away from Saints, who did a number on the holders. It was an entertaining game.
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FULL TIME: Southampton 1-0 Arsenal
Southampton have their first-ever FA Cup victory over Arsenal! The holders are out. Saints will play Wolves away in the fifth round.
90 min +3: Saints play it short, then Ward-Prowse concedes a free kick. Arsenal have just enough time for one Hail Mary play. They launch it long. The ball drops to Nketiah, just inside the box to the right of goal. It’s a decent half-chance, but he slashes desperately wide right.
90 min +2: N’Lundulu busies himself down the inside-left channel, forcing Xhaka to concede a corner. Saints take their sweet time over it.
90 min +1: The first of three added minutes passes without drama.
90 min: Saka whips a brilliant ball in from the left. It whistles through the six-yard box. Lacazette is inches away from meeting it at the near post. The ball flies inches wide of the far post. Saints breathe out.
89 min: Saints have to settle for a corner. They waste it.
88 min: Partey gives the ball away in midfield. The ball’s shuttled to Long, who enters the box and goes over the leg of Holding. Neither referee nor VAR is interested in awarding a penalty, which seems a bit strange because there was contact.
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87 min: Diallo mooches up and down the right wing. He goes nowhere in particular, but the clock ticks on.
85 min: Ings is replaced by Long.
84 min: Pepe sends a high curler miles over the bar. With time running out for the holders, that was inexcusable. On the touchline, Arteta fumes enigmatically.
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83 min: Pepe drives in from the right and is brusquely dealt with by Bertrand. A free kick and a booking for the overly aggressive block. This is just to the right of the box. A real chance for Arsenal.
82 min: A rare Saints foray into Arsenal territory is rewarded when Partey needlessly bundles Bertrand to the ground near the left-hand corner flag. From the resulting free kick, the ball’s worked to Ings, who sends a rising shot goalwards from 20 yards. Easy for Leno.
80 min: Lacazette dinks into the Saints box for Pepe, who threatens to waltz around the committed Forster on the left. The keeper does just enough to force the pull-back. Nketiah shoots towards goal, the keeper out of position. Ward-Prowse clears off the line, then the flag goes up for an offside on Pepe.
78 min: Some fresh legs up front for Saints, in the hope of finding more out-balls: Adams makes way for N’Lundulu.
77 min: It’s attack versus defence ... and some last-ditch stuff from Saints, Bednarek heading clear under pressure from Lacazette, Ings slashing upfield with Pepe and Willian nearby.
75 min: Saints have never beaten Arsenal in the FA Cup. The Gunners are four from four. Arsenal don’t appear minded to spoil that record. Willian jinks down the left and shoots, winning a corner with a deflection. Nothing comes of that, but there’s only one side who look like scoring now. Can Saints hang on?
73 min: Willian crosses viciously from the left. Forster punches clear spectacularly. Arsenal are asking questions now.
71 min: Lacazette comes on for Bellerin. Cedric moves to right back, while Saka drops to left back.
69 min: Arsenal now look properly dangerous for the first time this afternoon. Saka, Pepe, Partey and Nketiah give Saints some of their own medicine, swarming all over the hosts. A cross from the right hits Walker-Peters on the arm. VAR checks, and play goes on, though the defender’s arm wasn’t tight by his body - think of the universal chicken impression - and you’ve seen those given.
68 min: The corner comes to nought.
67 min: Pepe slips a ball down the left for Nketiah, who strides into the box and flicks a shot towards the bottom right. It’s heading in, but Forster sticks out a foot to deflect out for a corner. That was a really clever attempt, and a magnificent save.
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65 min: Armstrong plays a cute reverse pass down the left to release Adams, who looks for Walcott in the middle. An earlier ball, and Walcott was free; instead, it flies through to Ings on the right. Ings cuts back for Walcott, but the ball bobbles, and Walcott sends his snapshot sailing serenely over the bar.
64 min: Partey lumps one goalwards from the best part of 30 yards. As the ball disappears into the stand, he holds up a hand of apology to team-mates in better positions.
63 min: Arsenal have upped their tempo since the double change, Partey right in the thick of it. They’re beginning to see a lot more of the ball.
61 min: Some breaking news that may get the old managerial merry-go-round spinning. Rumours ahoy!
59 min: That’s lifted Arsenal’s spirits. Nketiah sashays infield from the right, and his low shot is deflected off Bednarek and out for a corner. That wasn’t far from flying in, with Forster wrong-footed and rooted to the spot. From the resulting corner, Holding hoicks over the bar from 12 yards. Much, much better from the holders.
58 min: Arsenal make a double change: Saka and Partey for Martinelli and Elneny.
56 min: Stephens leaves one on Pepe as the pair tangle on the floor. Did he mean that? If so, he’s lucky to get away with just a yellow. The referee gives him the benefit of the doubt, which seems about right. Bellerin isn’t happy with the decision, but it is what it is.
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54 min: Quarterbacking from deep, Stephens creams a glorious crossfield pass towards Adams on the right. Pass of the match! Adams prepares to attack the box, but sadly for Saints the flag goes up for offside. Not sure about that. It was very close. Arsenal breathe again.
53 min: Nketiah busies himself to win a corner down the right, but the set piece is easily dealt with by the home side.
51 min: Bertrand rips down the left and cuts back for Ward-Prowse, who slashes wildly over the bar. Saints are all over Arsenal, who can’t keep on like this.
50 min: Ings tears after a long ball down the middle. He’s clear! He enters the box and goes for the bottom right. The ball cannons off the base of the post, back off the late-arriving Leno, and inches wide. Turns out it wouldn’t have counted anyway, the offside flag going up.
49 min: Saints continue to hassle and harry the Arsenal defence. The visitors can’t get going.
47 min: Arsenal are looking for a fast start to the second half, but it’s Saints on the front foot, and Martinelli gauchely brings down Walker-Peters on the right. Ward-Prowse sends a tricky outswinger into the mixer, and Leno bravely claims low in a crowded box.
Arsenal get the second half underway. No changes.
Looks like the goal has been taken off Walker-Peters and recorded as a Gabriel own goal. Bah. Southampton won’t care too much either way, but Walker-Peters, yet to score in a Saints shirt, might. As for Arsenal, they’ll have to up their game. With the exception of the effervescent Martinelli, they’ve been poor to a man, a state of affairs elegantly described here by Charles Antaki: “Arsenal seem to be counting on a feather-duster strategy - flicking away at the surface from a cautious distance and hoping the shine will eventually come. Brasso required, also elbow grease.”
Half-time entertainment. Fifteen minutes is more than enough for a Long Read, yes?
HALF TIME: Southampton 1-0 Arsenal
Saints have prised one of Arsenal’s hands off the famous old pot.
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45 min: Cedric crosses again from the left ... and again it sails out of play, miles wide right. There will be one added minute.
44 min: Ward-Prowse takes his sweet time over the free kick. He eventually takes it, aiming for the top left. He can get it up over the wall, but not back down. A poor effort.
42 min: Pepe clumsily leaps into Bertrand, the pair contesting a high ball just to the left of the Arsenal box. Saints were going nowhere fast, so that’s a particularly daft foul to give away. A free kick in a very dangerous position.
40 min: Space for Walcott down the left. He’s got options in the middle, but clumsily runs the ball out of play. A great position wasted.
38 min: Arsenal ping it around to little effect. Saints are looking pretty comfortable right now. But all is not lost for Mikel Arteta, according to Ian Copestake: “It’s been brought to my attention that Bellerin is impossibly handsome and/or hot. Something for the beleaguered Arsenal manager to factor in as a positive.”
36 min: Willian slides Nketiah into space down the right. The ball breaks to Pepe, who has a whack from the corner of the box. Bednarek blocks. The ball again falls to Pepe, whose deep cross is nowhere near Cedric. Better from Arsenal, who may decide that attack is the best form of defence.
35 min: The Saints press is causing Arsenal all sorts of agony. This time Ings nicks the ball, and tees up Armstrong, whose low drive is deflected wide left. The resulting corner is met by Ings, who heads wide right from 12 yards. Arsenal don’t look sure of themselves in defence at all.
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33 min: Willian nicks the back of Walker-Peters’ heel. The referee doesn’t see it. On another day, that might have been a booking. Meanwhile here’s the MBM’s old friend Mac Millings: “Contrary to your suggestion, it is my understanding that the 9th minute’s Rich Naylor *is* Gary Naylor. The early reporting is unclear, but it appears that he won the lottery and immediately renamed himself, although there are some suggestions that he used his new-found wealth to turn himself into a thin, dunkable biscuit.” Isn’t it a bit early to be on the pipe?
31 min: Some space for Cedric down the left, but his cross towards Nketiah at the far post is way too strong. Goal kick. Forster hasn’t been put to serious work yet. The holders have some thinking to do.
29 min: A right-wing Saints cross drops to Ings at the far post. Ings chests down and volleys, his effort pinging off the back of Bellerin and only just wide right. Corner, from which Bertrand attempts an extremely ambitious shot from the best part of 30 yards. That one’s off to the Solent.
27 min: Ward-Prowse looks to curl one into the top right from distance. Not quite, but not bad.
26 min: That goal may go down as a Gabriel own goal. Walker-Peters shot may have been heading wide left. But did it take another flick, in the first instance, off Cedric, to set it out that way? You’d like to think Walker-Peters will be credited with his first Southampton goal, but we’ll keep you posted on that. Either way, it’s been a miserable start for the hapless Gabriel.
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GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Arsenal (Gabriel OG 24)
The Saints press discombobulates the Arsenal defence. The ball’s shuttled out to the right, Walker-Peters entering the box and firing a shot through Cedric’s legs. The ball takes a flick off Gabriel’s outstretched leg, and pings past the wrong-footed Leno and into the bottom left.
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23 min: The game goes a bit scrappy for the first time.
21 min: Cedric rakes a pass down the left in the hope of releasing Martinelli, who looks extremely lively. Forster is forced to race out of his area and blooter clear.
19 min: It’s a lively and entertaining game, this. Both sides could have had a goal or two already. Let’s hope they keep this up, with the promise of extra time and penalties to come, of course.
17 min: Walcott, who scored a hat-trick for Arsenal the last time the FA Cup threw up this particular fixture, has a dig from distance. He looks for the top left from a deep position out on the right. Not quite, but full marks for ambition.
16 min: A free kick for Arsenal out on the left. Willian curls it down the channel, and Martinelli is free in the box, everyone else lined up on the other side, expecting a diagonal delivery. A clever routine, but Martinelli swings a leg at the dropping ball and gets no purchase on it. Easy claim for Forster, but Martinelli should have scored.
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14 min: Adams knocks the ball past Gabriel and backs himself in a footrace down the inside right. Easy. Gabriel doesn’t seem on it at all this afternoon. Adams makes it into the box and aims for the bottom left. Leno sticks out a strong hand to make an excellent save.
13 min: Arsenal are slowly working their way into this. Nketiah’s clever reverse ball sends Willian into space down the right. His low cross is only half-cleared by Stephens. Cedric, on the edge of the box, has time to line up a shot, so his wild hoick into the stand behind can be considered extremely poor. The flag then goes up for offside, belatedly, though it looked as though Willian was onside. It’d have been one for VAR had Cedric converted.
11 min: So having said that, Arsenal finally show in attack. Willian plays a glorious crossfield pass towards Pepe on the right, forcing a backtracking Bertrand to bundle the ball out for a corner. Nothing comes from the set piece, but that’ll give Arsenal succour after a sluggish start.
9 min: Arsenal are struggling to get anything going, pootling around in midfield to no effect. So to kill the time, here’s Rich (no relation to Gary) Naylor: “I was at that final in Cardiff together with my brother. I flew over from Denmark just to make it. Maybe one thing that helps to explain it a bit (in my mind anyway) was that just a few weeks earlier, we had been on the receiving end of a five-star shellacking at the hands of Arsenal, and I think Strachan might have been worried about the potential for being really humiliated in an FA cup final. He played a very defensive team and line-up from what I remember - but then again we had been drinking in the Cardiff bars from well before the game, so what I remember might be rubbish.” Pulitzer for Mr Naylor, please!
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7 min: Another left-wing cross by Bertrand. The whistle goes as Armstrong barges into the back of Elneny. This is a really impressive, high-tempo start by Saints; not so much by Arsenal.
5 min: The third corner is a non-event. What an effort by Ward-Prowse, though. Did he mean that? He may well have done, you know. A dead-ball wizard.
4 min: Bertrand whips in from the left, forcing Cedric to put it out for a corner on the other side. The corner’s pulled back to Ings, who tries to hook into the bottom right. A deflection sets up another corner. Ward-Prowse takes again, the ball swerving infield, then back the other way, and off the crossbar! Arsenal bundle it out for another corner.
3 min: Set-piece magician Ward-Prowse swings the free kick into the mixer, looking for Armstrong to the left of goal. Leno comes out to claim confidently.
2 min: Gabriel miscontrols a simple pass from Leno and it’s a throw for Saints deep in Arsenal territory. During the following phase of play, Gabriel clumsily slaps Ings in the face. Nothing more than a free kick, all accidental, but it’s a nervous start by Arsenal’s centre back.
Saints get the ball rolling ... but only after everyone takes the knee. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
The teams are out! Southampton wear their red shirts with white sash, forcing Arsenal into third-choice blue. It’s a brisk afternoon on the south coast. We’ll be off in a minute or two!
Mikel Arteta’s turn. “We are in a much better place. We are winning football matches, playing well, keeping clean sheets, and today we play our favourite competition. We have to defend it, and we face a very difficult opponent. There are players who deserve a chance, we have some injuries, it is a bit of everything.”
He also reports that Aubameyang had “a personal matter in the last few hours and we had to send him back”.
Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl talks to BT Sport: “I hope this is a strong side and we can compete with them. This is an important competition. Arsenal has a big squad and can maybe change a bit more, we are struggling with injuries, but we go with hopefully a strong side.”
Want an illustration of exactly how uneventful the aforementioned 2003 final was? Here’s Matt Emerson, whose reminiscence begins to stray from the subject after a dozen words, and never comes back to it. “I was at the 2003 final, and it was interminably dull, aided by a seven-hour round trip. Any pleasure in watching us win was further diluted by the fact that I’d missed the ‘Only Ray Parlour’ final the year before to go to my Spurs-supporting friend Big Kev’s wedding. I would never have missed his wedding just for a game of football, but the contrast in excitement levels was quite striking. And to be fair, Kev had tried to miss the final by scheduling his nuptials for early May, only for the FA to shunt it forward in order for England to prepare for the World Cup.”
Southampton make six changes to the team that saw off Shrewsbury Town in the rescheduled third-round match this week. Danny Ings returns after a hamstring injury and positive Covid test. Theo Walcott and Che Adams are also back. Fraser Forster, Jack Stephens, Jan Bednarek, James Ward-Prowse and Ibrahima Diallo all retain their places.
Arsenal make seven changes from the team sent out to beat Newcastle 3-0 in the Premier League on Monday night. Hector Bellerin, Gabriel Magalhaes, Mohamed Elneny, Nicolas Pepe, Willian, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah are all in, while new loan signing Mat Ryan is on the bench. No Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the squad.
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The teams
Southampton: Forster, Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand, Armstrong, Diallo, Ward-Prowse, Walcott, Ings, Adams.
Subs: Watts, Long, Valery, Vokins, Ramsay, N’Lundulu, Lewis, Jankewitz, Chauke.
Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Cedric, Elneny, Xhaka, Pepe, Willian, Martinelli, Nketiah.
Subs: Saka, Lacazette, Runarsson, Maitland-Niles, Thomas, Chambers, Luiz, Willock, Ryan.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside).
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Preamble
The 2003 FA Cup final hasn’t lingered long in the memory. Robert Pires scored the only goal of an eye-wateringly dull game, the only real drama coming in the last minute when Ashley Cole cleared James Beattie’s header off the line. Arsenal and Southampton owe us one.
This fourth-round tie could be it! Both teams are in a good place right now, Saints progressing nice and steadily under Ralph Hasenhuttl, Arsenal rediscovering some form after losing their way in the autumn. Both teams will fancy their chances here too: Saints should have won at the Emirates back in December, while Arsenal tasted victory at St Mary’s last June. They also won the last FA Cup meeting here 5-0, though the hat-trick hero that day in 2017, Theo Walcott has since swapped sides. Kick off is at 12.15pm GMT. It’s on!
