I figured I'd start this one since no one else has. Looks like there will be 8 first teamers sidelined: Campbell, Cygan, Cole, Lauren, Viera, Parlour, Ljungberg, and Henry. Yikes! That would be a pretty impressive side, yet they'll all be watching from the stands.
Well hopefully Upson and Jeffers will so LeBoss that they have what it takes. I wouldn't be suprised if that 18 yr old keeper(name escapes me at the moment) got some action. I hope everyone takes the match seriously.
As a Third Division team I wonder how much scouting Wenger can do or does he take the week off and just go with a normal gameplan? It would seem to be hard to get all excited about Oxford Utd. (look at the amount of board activity), but it is the FA Cup. When was the last time we played a Third Division team anyways? I only remember a handful of recent FA Cup games. Oxford has the best defense in the Third Div and not a great offense so I would assume they will defend with all their players and hope for the 0-0 draw. Get a replay at home. I will say we get 15 corners and not one in the net. With all the chances we get it should be great practice.
Football Unlimited had an article from Ron Atkinson about when he played for Oxford United in the 60s and they played Arsenal in a 3rd round FA Cup match. There manager told them to try and hang on and frustrate Arsenal. Arsenal scored in the 14th second. Final was like 5-1. Would like to see DB10 and Jeffers work together for a goal or two.
Sweet. I hope the end result isn't like a dream I had last night. I won't mention it until after the game.
A comfortable win. Lots of changes, but the players on show took the game seriously enough that we had all the posession and Oxford rarely got around our area. Seaman was runing back and forth across his area for most of the second half trying to keep warm! Great to see Dennis get his 100th goal after we thought he'd done it against Chelsea, only to discover it was Desailly that put it in. Nice set up from Jeffers, although he should have had at least two himself when he was sent through with only the keeper to beat twice. Edu ran the midfield and Gio got forward from left-back whenever he could. Wiltord and then Pires could, and probably should, have added a third late on. A young fella called David Bentley and came on with about 10 minutes to go and showed plenty of confidence. With his first touch he took on two Oxford defenders and fired in a great cross. He tormented their left-back for the few minutes he was on the field. He looks to have plenty of talent for the future.
Yikes! Poor Everton! Kind of a shame, I've enjoyed their form this season, but that's one less top team for the Gunners to worry about later on. Good show for Arsenal; wish FSW had broadcast the game. (All they've got this weekend is a rerun of ManU throttling Portsmouth. Bleah. I was hoping that one would be a draw...) I'll have to watch the news for a look at Dennis's 100th.
He did get is 100th against Chelsea! It was his foot that put the ball past Cudicini, it literally happened right in front of me. Jesus Christ Bergkamp wuz robbed.
Arsenal played in a comfort zone and were in complete control throughout the entire game. Jeffers missed a number of chances to put the ball in the back of the net. As I said in a previous post watch out for young David Bentley. Well he came on in the last 10 to 15 minutes and was most impressive. This lad has a great future in store for himself at Highbury.