Arsenal took a stress-free approach to their trip to Mansfield Town on Saturday.
Few games have been played in a long and difficult campaign for the Gunners without a lot of pressure, with their desire to win all four competitions available.
But if they were hoping for an easy run against League One opponents in the FA Cup, that was not to be expected.
It took 41 minutes to break the deadlock, with Noni Madueke scoring a superb shot from inside the area.
Arsenal struggled for much of the game and were hampered by second-half substitute Will Evans, but Eberechi Eze was the key to guiding Mikel Arteta’s side into the quarter-finals, their best challenge to this stage of the competition since 2020.
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Unsurprisingly, Arteta announced the changes on Saturday afternoon ahead of a big week when they face Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
However, in midweek, many players sought a place in the team, so few staked their claim.
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised that the performance lacked fluidity. The game started with a three-man defense, but things didn’t go well until Leandro Trossard was forced off with an injury.
This allowed Arsenal to move to a four-man back line, which improved the situation, but lacked penetration and creativity.
That was mainly due to the performance of Gabriel Martinelli on the left, who was unable to make the left-wing position his own.
Maduke on the right scored an important goal, but Martinelli never troubled the Ligue 1 defense. He got the assist for the first goal, but all he had to do was play a simple 4-yard pass to the right side.
That aside, it was a poor performance from the Brazilian, who won only two of his eight duels and successfully dribbled just once.
However, it wasn’t just the attack that caused problems for Arsenal, with Cristian Mosquera at the heart of the defense looking strangely unstable.
The Spaniard has had an exceptional run since arriving at the Emirates Stadium, but there have been a number of times where he has dived without coming out with the ball.
It was another struggle for the centre-back after a subdued performance against Brighton a few days ago, but it didn’t help Marli Salmon.
The 16-year-old made his first start for the Gunners after a series of substitute appearances and looked decent for most of his time on the pitch, but in the build-up to Mansfield’s opener he played a pass to Mosquera who went short.
That said, they were definitely not Arsenal’s worst players on the pitch.
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It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Arsenal, as Madueke and Eze found the back of the net. Max Dauman was also just incredible in his first start after his injury.
He’s also 16 years old, so it’s no surprise that the word generation is thrown around a lot. He exudes dignity.
The same cannot be said for Gabriel Jesus, a player at the opposite end of his career to Dauman, but who is clearly playing his final knock at the club.
While Arsenal’s prodigious teenager relished the occasion, Jesus wasn’t risking his place with yet another lethargic-looking performance.
The Brazilian missed most of 2025 with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but was back on track at the end of the year, scoring twice against Inter Milan.
However, apart from scoring in the final cup game against Wigan Athletic, his quality has seemed non-existent in the final third in recent months. In fact, this was another miserable performance from Arsenal’s No.9.
Like Martinelli, he didn’t look like he was going to score, and he had three shots, but only one of them went on target.
Arsenal player rating against Mansfield |
|---|
Kepa Arrizabalaga – 6 |
Mari Salmon – 5 |
Cristian Mosquera – 4 |
Riccardo Calafioli – 5 |
Christian Norgaard – 6 |
Leandro Trossard – 5 |
Kai Havertz – 6 |
Max Dauman – 9 |
Noni Duke – 8 |
Gabriel Martinelli – 4 |
Gabriel Jesus – 3 |
The most concerning aspect of Jesus’ play is his lack of physicality and lack of explosiveness since his injury. There is an argument that he is like Raheem Sterling this season.
Sterling signed a season-long loan deal with Arsenal last season but appeared to be far beyond his best, scoring just one goal during his time at the club and infamously missing a penalty against Girona in the Champions League.
Like Sterling, Jesus looks well off the pace and is a shadow of the player he signed from Manchester City.
Against Mansfield, he had just 37 touches on the ball. To put this in context, goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga found himself more involved with 65 touches.
Additionally, Jesus completed only 71% of his passes and won only one of his five ground battles. Now 28 years old, his quality has shown a worrying regression.
What’s next? Well, it would be surprising to see the Brazil international start again at Arsenal, given that Havertz and Gokeres appear to be above him in the pecking order.
As a result, he is expected to sell for his £45m signing in the summer, ahead of the likes of Trossard and Martinelli.
Worse than Salmon: Arsenal star looked like an academy player against Mansfield
The fate of the players in red was mixed on Saturday as Arsenal advanced in the FA Cup.
