Steady Eddie sends Arsenal to the FA Cup fourth round
Looking to provide a major FAC upset, Oxford were given early encouragement as Fábio Vieira lost the ball on the edge of his own box, although Gunners academy graduate Marcus McGuane couldn’t keep the ball under control to capitalise. The Yellows were certainly holding their own against illustrious opposition with Cameron Brannagan leading their fight, and the midfielder saw a powerful strike blocked early on.
When Albert Sambi Lokonga had an opportunity shortly after the half-hour mark, Elliott Moore conjured a block that Arsenal felt warranted a handball call. They put referee David Coote under plenty of pressure in the aftermath, but were unable to do quite the same to Oxford’s backline before the break as Djavan Anderson made a superb recovery tackle to halt Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah flicked his shot over the crossbar. Ciaron Brown’s ball split Arsenal shortly after the restart and released Matty Taylor, who was quickly smothered by the onrushing Matt Turner.
Bukayo Saka finally hit Arsenal’s first shot on target in the 55th minute, but Lewis Bate did brilliantly to get back on the line and clear. That seemingly sparked the Gunners into life, and it wasn’t long before Mohamed Elneny met Vieira’s pinpoint free-kick delivery with a powerful header to score his first FA Cup goal. Oxford were then split open again by two passes, resulting in Nketiah rounding Edward McGinty and finishing. For a third Gunners goal in 13 minutes, Nketiah latched onto Martinelli’s pass and dinked a wonderful shot past McGinty, capping off a lethal second-half display.
Emile Smith Rowe then came agonisingly close after coming off the bench for his first appearance since September, as Arsenal secured a fourth win from their last five matches in all competitions to set up a heavyweight fixture with Manchester City. Meanwhile, Oxford have lost back-to-back home matches after going unbeaten in the previous five, and Robinson will now be focusing on getting the Yellows up the League One table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal)