BLACKPOOL

that the Wales international has now been told face-to-face that he will not be offered a new deal to replace his current contract which expires in the summer.

Once the game began, 32 fairly turgid minutes passed without a single shot on target at either end.

That all changed in a flash, though, when Guendouzi whipped in an angled cross, Lichtsteiner stretched out a telescopic leg and the ball trickled agonisingly past Blackpool goalkeeper Mark Howard and into the far corner.

A quick VAR check backed the assistant referee’s verdict that the Switzerland right-back had narrowly beaten the offside trap and nerves that had been unsettled by the pace of Blackpool’s Nathan Delfounesco could finally relax a bit.

Ramsey himself should have doubled the lead before the break when picked out by Maitland-Niles on the edge of the six-yard box; instead his off-balance shot flew high over the bar. Arsenal’s first meaningful attack of the second period saw Jenkinson go on the overlap and although his cross was poor, Howard made such a mess of clawing it away he simply hooked the ball down to the feet of Smith Rowe, who gratefully scuffed the ball into the back of the net.

Petr Cech will want to question his own performance when he could only flap at a Blackpool corner as centre-back O’Connor thumped a header against the bar – not least as his place is under permanent threat these days from Germany international Bernd Leno. As it was, it turned out to be an important side.

The Gunners were reduced to 10 men just two minutes later when Guendouzi was shown a second yellow card for a cute tug on Jordan Thompson’s shirt as the Blackpool midfielder broke for goal. He had earlier been booked for a foul on the same player in the first half.

Blackpool looked to take advantage of their superior numbers and set up a nervy final 24 minutes when O’Connor found the net from another Blackpool corner which Arsenal failed to deal with. Cech – by losing possession in his own area to Jay Spearing only escape for the home