“The FA Cup is a specific competition, it brings beautiful stories and surprises. Arsenal, Newcastle and Blackburn, for example, dropped out at the weekend. Eighteen-year-old Joe Gray decided on Hartlepool’s fourth league victory over second-league Blackpool. With 59 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. People like cups for all this.
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Many Premier League teams don’t give that weight to the FA Cup in the beginning. They have a busy schedule, spinning players. Only when they make it to the quarterfinals do the cup start to interest them more. Then they want to win it.
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I watched the Arsenal match in Nottingham. Mikel Arteta had to make a substitution after 35 minutes. Nuna Tavarese limped off the field and was replaced by a defender. This is quite typical for Premier League teams in my opinion. They go against an opponent from the second or third league and think that the procedure will fall easily into their pockets.
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Weaker teams have motivation
I have my own experience with this. Sheffield Wednesday and I won in Newcastle in the fall of 2015 and got Arsenal in the next round. We beat him 3: 0 at home. Sure, they didn’t come up against us in the strongest line-up, but Petr Čech caught and Giroud, Mertesacker or Walcott, who was injured, played. Those players may not have played that much back then, but they were still big names.
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When these big fighters arrive on the team of a team from the second or third league, they do not often have their heads set up to fight as a home team from a lower competition. On the contrary, he has the motivation to show that he can match them. In addition, you know that as you move forward, you may encounter an even better and more famous opponent in the next round. It all drives you.
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Bukayo Saka (left) of Arsenal fires, defending him by Nathan Ake of Manchester City.Photo: Ian Walton, Reuters
Back to the current Arsenal. I don’t think the defeat in Nottingham should have any greater effect on him. Such surprises happen in the FA Cup in practically every round. The following program of “gunners” is very interesting. They are already playing the cup against Liverpool this week, the big derby against Tottenham in the league this weekend and then retaliation with Liverpool. .
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With Nottingham, the guests held a balloon, but it was difficult for them to get into the closed defense. They didn’t have a single end to the goal, all the shots went out. The match with Liverpool could suit them more from this point of view.
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Arsenal tend to have such performance sinusoids. His team has changed a lot, there are a lot of young and promising players like Saka, Martinelli or Smith Rowe. Like anyone else, they need to gain experience. Overall, everything needs to sit there more. I quite like Mikela Arteta. And when they do, I like the way they play.
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Of course, the pressure on the young players is great. Arsenal has a huge tradition, the owners and fans would like to be at the top, at least among the top four, and win the cups. They have not been able to do this for some time, but they have interesting potential.
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They need to stabilize. I think they should let Arteta work with the young players for a year or two at the club. I believe that then they could reach the level of Liverpool or Manchester City.
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I would like to highlight two more matches from the weekend FA Cup program. I really liked the match between Barnsley and Barrow, which ended 5: 4. Barnsley led 2-0 in half and the opponent played from the 38th minute by ten. Nevertheless, the guests managed to equalize 2: 2 and another four goals were scored in the last ten minutes. It was decided only in overtime. Beautiful goals were scored, it was a very interesting match, although Barnsley, who plays two competitions higher, should watch such a duel better.
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Chelsea hosted Chesterfield at home, which is only from the fifth league. Five or six thousand of his fans came to Stamford Bridge. Chesterfield lost 0: 5, but when he scored in the 80th minute, everyone enjoyed this moment as if they had won the World Cup. They knew they had no chance at Chelsea, but that one goal made everyone a trip to London. That’s exactly what to experience. This story also shows how charming the FA Cup is. “
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