Nothing can possibly stop Arsenal now they have beaten by far the greatest team the world has ever seen | OneFootball

An entire 19 obstacles still remain, but there can no longer be any doubt as to the legitimacy of Arsenal’s Quadruple credentials.

If they can overcome quite literally by far the greatest team the world has ever seen, surviving a magic-adjacent wobble in the process, it is difficult to fathom what might possibly stop the Gunners now.

The answer is probably the same as it has been for months: themselves. But Arsenal manoeuvring a banana skin of this magnitude is somehow more compelling evidence that they are proper than a perfect Champions League record, a north London derby thrashing or a Fabian Hurzeler-baiting smash and grab.

Those occasions are easier for Arsenal to rise to. The Premier League is their bread and butter, the Champions League a more exotic hotel option of fruit, yoghurts and croissants. The rhythm and flow of those competitions is what Mikel Arteta has spent more than six years attuning this club to.

A trip to a third-tier team already deeper in the FA Cup than three generations of their support will have ever experienced, with every final semblance of pressure on Arsenal alone not just across these 90 playing field-equalling minutes but for the complexion of a season which still teeters between incomprehensible glory and unprecedented failure with each passing fixture, made for a remarkably difficult and potentially ungodly humbling afternoon.

The nine changes Arteta understandably decided to make to his starting line-up added another element of risk to a combustible equation.

Through that prism, a 2-1 win over an obdurate Mansfield side running purely on magical FA Cup fumes can only really be viewed one way: how absurdly funny it is that Arsenal were given a far harder time here than against Spurs a fortnight ago.

There are 59 places between these two teams in the English football pyramid, but the hilarious extent to which Mansfield have had their eye on this game and run for well over a month ought to be taken into account.

Since beating Sheffield United in the third round on January 11, the Stags had won two of their 11 games: 3-0 at home to Port Vale on January 17, then 2-1 against Burnley at Turf Moor in February to reach this stage.

They are 16th in League One but have games in hand on most of those around them and can now focus fully on pulling towards mid-table safety. And on this showing that will not take long.

It will never not be strange to see an open Bishop Street Stand, never mind a completely packed one. After ten minutes those condensed fans were cheering in gleeful anticipation as heroes from previous rounds in Louis Reed and Rhys Oates both went close. Five minutes later, former Leeds forward Tyler Roberts curled an effort just past the post.

The 11 shots Mansfield mustered by half time – more than Arsenal’s ten – was the most the Gunners had faced in a first half all season.

Much of that was born of Arteta’s curious selection call, combining mass rotation with an unfamiliar three-man defence to almost goad a shock defeat.

Cristhian Mosquera in particular struggled with facing what was presumably a club he grew up supporting. Some players performed at a level tangibly below their capabilities and will be relieved that the run-in likely features only top-flight opposition from here on out.

Arsenal merely adopted the dark (arts) but Mansfield were born in it, moulded by both facing and being managed by Steve Evans. They were on a diet of Exodus Geohaghon long throws while Arsenal were still passing it in under Arsene Wenger. This was never going to be easy.

Only with Piero Hincapie’s introduction for Leandro Trossard in the 38th minute did Arsenal discover the balance necessary to strike first through Noni Madueke and calm their nerves.

It was the first time ever that a Premier League side had started a competitive fixture with two players aged 16 or under. Max Dowman was excellent in a performance of real maturity, but the otherwise impressive Marli Salmon flaked at the wrong moment.

His pass into the middle was slightly short as Arsenal recycled possession, yet Hincapie’s response turned a lit match into a raging dumpster fire. Will Evans nipped in, fresh on as a half-time substitute, to bypass the barely-turning defender and slot past Kepa for the equaliser.

It was nothing Mansfield didn’t deserve, nor a moment they simply settled for.

Reed should have done better when the hosts outnumbered Arsenal on a counter; Kyle Knoyle did exceptionally well to clear off the line when the Gunners wasted their own five-v-two opportunity; Oliver Irow almost scored perhaps the most narrative-laden equaliser of all time as a Spurs loanee netting from a long throw.

In the end, Arsenal needed two summer signings to save them. Both Madueke and substitute Eberechi Eze’s efforts were technically phenomenal, brutally powerful, and validation of signings which cost more than £100m to turn Arsenal into a unit capable of competing on multiple fronts.

They had their fun, too, in their casting as the arch-villains of English football. Arsenal absolutely should lean into that laborious tag by calling for a handball when Frazer Blake-Tracy quite evidently chests a cross behind for a corner. They are within their rights to chant “same old Mansfield, always cheating” when Stephen McLaughlin is booked for diving, despite these teams having only ever previously met in 1929.

And by the end, the chants of “say hello to Tottenham” provided another reminder of how Arsenal could not have constructed a more potentially perfect season if they tried. .