Martin Keown reveals major Arsenal fear after FA Cup win against Mansfield | Football

Martin Keown fears Arsenal’s FA Cup fifth round win over Mansfield could come at a major cost after Mikel Arteta’s side were pushed all the 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 top of the Premier League extend to seven points.

A makeshift line-up struggled to adapt to a new formation on a boggy One Call Stadium pitch and it took until shortly before half-time for Noni Madueke to break the deadlock.

Rather than representing the launchpad for a routine victory, Arsenal failed to 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 in the balance, Arteta made further changes and his substitutions ultimately paid dividends when Eberechi Eze fired home from the edge of the penalty area.

The visitors saw out the remaining period of the game relatively comfortably and will now move on to an altogether different test when they face Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.

Arteta is, however, almost certain to be without Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard after the pair failed to last the 90 minutes which came as a major concern to Keown.

The former Arsenal defender was asked to predict how many trophies his old club would end the season with but he refused to be drawn and instead focused on the damage that may have been caused by two senior first team players sustaining setbacks.

He said: ‘Do you know if you start talking about how many you’re going to win it’s going to sound arrogant.

‘They’re in four competitions and they nearly went out today it was that close. Mansfield gave them a real scare.

‘It’s just game to game and it’s been expensive with the injuries so the manager will 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 proper FA Cup game and credit to Mansfield the stadium and the atmosphere the fans created there was a bit of banter,’ said the Arsenal boss.

‘They made it really difficult for us. If not, you have to be more ruthless in front of goal than we were today.

‘The margin becomes smaller, and you give hope to the opposition. We made a mistake on the goal which cost us the momentum and belief for them. Overall, happy with the performance.

‘We have two 16-year-olds in the starting line-up, which I don’t think has ever happened, and I am very proud of them.

‘I think everyone feels involved. We have the desire that, game by game, we can get closer to the things that we can achieve.’

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