Ayew goal spares Palace’s blushes
JORDAN AYEW’S late goal broke Grimsby hearts after they had heroically kept Premier League Crystal Palace at bay until the 86th minute with only 10 men.
The substitute’s header from Jeffrey Schlupp’s free-kick three minutes from time was enough to deny the League Two side a replay – although they had probably had enough of replays inside the first four minutes.
VAR effectively killed off another
UOUR MAN OF THE MATCH
slice of FA Cup third round tradition. A clumsy early hefty challenge by an underdog defender on a top-flight team’s star man is as much a part of the tapestry of this weekend as muddy pitches and unlikely heroes.
Andrew Fox’s one-footed, studs-up challenge on Andros Townsend in the second minute What with a Blackpool fan having a sit-down protest on top of Arsenal’s team bus and demonstrations outside Bloomfield Road, his maiden visit couldn’t have been any more eventful.
Add to that three well-worked goals and a victory hard-earned on a dodgy pitch in front of a sparsely populated crowd, and the Gunners boss will remember the land of kiss-me-quick hats for a lifetime.
It was tense at times but comfortable in the end with Joe Willock celebrating a first-half double and Alex Iwobi notching a third to give the Gunners a carefree passage into the fourth round.
Emery, though, had the ride of his life on the Big One. Not the famed white-knuckle rollercoaster ride down the road on the Pleasure Beach, but the FA Cup.
The most famous cup competition in the world which Arsenal have won a record 13 times – the most of any club in England.
Emery’s predecessor Arsene Wenger had collected seven himself and the new Arsenal guv’nor is a small step on the road to his first.
He won’t, of course, have a more madcap introduction to football life at Blackpool where fans have been protesting for was nothing more than that. On-field referee Martin Atkinson did not even give a free-kick with Palace still in possession, and it was only when they put the ball out of play with Townsend still on the ground that he rightly booked Fox.
Then, out of nowhere, presumably following a word in his ear from video ref Jonathan Moss, he was suddenly drawing a big TV screen in the air and reaching to his pocket for a red card.
Crystal Palace 1 Grimsby 0 Matt Dunn
years against the Oyston family’s ownership. A generation away from those heady Premier League days under Ian Holloway when life was fun and the football was fervent.
The Gunners’ re-shuffled team took little time to settle into the rhythm of the game with Eddie Nketiah going close with chances either side of Petr Cech saving from Armand Gnanduillet.
But in the 11th minute, Arsenal went 1-0 up. Aaron Ramsey’s flighted free-kick deflected onto the upright and Willock followed up to finish off with his head.
And it was 2-0 after 37 minutes when Carl Jenkinson, a late replacement for Laurent Koscielny, crocked in the warm-up, delivered across the face of the goal.
Nketiah got a touch on and there was a fully-alert Willock to somehow squeeze the ball home to send the 5,218 travelling fans happy to head for their half-time cuppas.
After that,
Emery’s side were on cruise control until the 82nd minute when Ramsey saw his shot saved by Christoffer
Mafoumbi only for Iwobi to claim Arsenal’s third goal.