Arsenal beat Portsmouth 2-0 in the FA Cup on Monday night.
Arsenal are through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup after beating League One side Portsmouth 2-0 on Monday night.
The Gunners crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday night with a shock home defeat at the hands of Olympiacos, and needed to respond on Monday.
A trip to the South Coast wasn’t ideal for Arsenal, as Pompey will have felt real giant-killing potential, but a youthful Gunners side got the job done.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos put Arsenal in front, converting Reiss Nelson’s right-wing cross with a fine finish, especially for a defender.
Eddie Nketiah sealed the win shortly after the break, bundling home another Nelson cross to make it 2-0, with Mikel Arteta’s side producing a professional display.
Arsenal fans were given a first look at January signing Pablo Mari, as the Spanish defender made his first-team debut for the club following his move from Flamengo.
Fans praised him for a ‘brilliant’ debut, believing he was really impressive defensively, blocking Portsmouth efforts and holding up against the League One side, though fans know bigger tests are ahead.
The big takeaway though was that Mari’s distribution out of defence was impressive, believing that his impressive record of 13/17 completed long balls shows exactly why Arteta wanted him.
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