Arsenal recovered from an early shock to beat Portsmouth 4-1 in the FA Cup, with all four goals coming from set pieces after Mikel Arteta made 10 changes to his starting line-up.
Despite conceding in the third minute, Arsenal quickly regained control. In truth, the margin of victory should have been far greater.
Gabriel Martinelli, who scored Arsenal’s second, third and fourth goals, could have completed his first senior hat-trick before half-time, but had to wait until the 72nd minute.
Noni Madueke, meanwhile, won a penalty after breezing past former Arsenal youngster Zak Swanson, only to send his spot-kick wide after sitting the Portsmouth goalkeeper down with a stuttered run-up.
At the interval it was 2-1 when it could easily have been five or six.
Portsmouth had surprised an unfocused Arsenal early on, striking first after Kepa Arrizabalaga could only parry a shot into the path of Colby Bishop, who converted from close range.
But Arsenal levelled just minutes later when a corner glanced off several Portsmouth heads before deflecting off a defender and over the line, another own goal for Mikel Arteta as set pieces continued to deliver.
By the 25th minute, Arsenal were ahead, again from a corner. Portsmouth’s defenders, focused on blocking and fouling perceived threats, left Martinelli completely free to head home unchallenged. It was an approach they repeated twice more, with the Brazilian eventually punishing them again with his head in the second half.
The first half was scrappy, wasteful and disjointed, perhaps unsurprising given the scale of the rotation. Only Gabriel had started the draw with Liverpool on Thursday, with several players short of minutes thrown together, something Arteta acknowledged after the match. “The fact that we made 10 changes, for example, and when you do that, there is a certain cohesion that is missing, certain players that obviously haven’t played minutes,” Arteta said. “So the understanding, the level of rhythm that you need in the way that we play, is not there.”
Even so, the tie should have been settled by the break.
Arsenal were far more controlled in the second half and Arteta admitted after the match that he had been serious in his half-time talk (is he ever anything else?), stressing the need to do the basics better and to change things “in their structure” to give them more control. “Yes [I had words at half-time], because we weren’t individually at a certain level, especially technically, to get out of the press.
“And at this level, you need to do those basics and those habits much better than we’ve done. We changed certain things in the structure to allow us more time and better options. And when we started to do that, obviously, they suffered more.”
But still Portsmouth had chances. They registered 13 shots, five on target, five more than Liverpool managed in midweek. Their defence, however, could not cope with Martinelli, who scored his second after some quick thinking from Myles Lewis-Skelly at a free-kick. He played in Gabriel Jesus, wo put in a great cross that found Martinelli at the far post.
He completed his hat-trick from another corner as Arsenal pulled clear.
All four goals came from set pieces, three corners and a quick free kick.
There was also a welcome return for Kai Havertz, who made his first appearance since the opening day of the season.
His passing, technique and awareness were immediately evident, qualities Arsenal have missed badly, and they will hope his fitness now holds. When asked if Havertz returning was the biggest positive of the day, Arteta smiled and replied: “The last few minutes, I was just watching him move and his awareness, the way he needs to move, when he needs to move in relation to where he moves, it’s just a joy to watch. We’ve missed him big time; he’s back with us, and now we need to maintain him on the field because he’s a very important player for us.”
A further landmark came when Marli Salmon, aged 16 years and 135 days, became the youngest player to feature for Arsenal in the FA Cup, another positive Arteta highlighted when talking to TNT Sport.
“We started exactly how we didn’t want to, giving them hope and momentum and an early goal,” he told TNT. “But then we managed to turn things around to start to be more dominant, to score from set pieces, and we made a difference there. Some positives to take and some things that we have to do better as well.”