Gunns enjoy a Pool party

TEN-MAN Arsenal got an almighty scare before booking a spot in the last eight.

Paudie O’Connor scored and hit the bar for the League One side after Arsenal’s Matteo Guendouzi had picked up a red card for a second bookable offence.

But O’Connor, on loan from Leeds, was then harshly shown a red card himself six minutes from time for a foul on Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.

Ultimately, goals by 34-year-old Stephan Lichtsteiner and Emile Smith Rowe, 18, were enough for Unai Emery’s side to edge it.

Blackpool had not won at Arsenal for nearly 50 years, when Stanley Matthews was in the team.

And although the Gunners made wholesale changes, they still looked strong enough to see off the League One side.

Offered

Carl Jenkinson was making his first appearance for Arsenal for 701 days and it was a chance for youngsters such as Julio Pleguezuelo, Smith Rowe and Ainsley Maitland-Niles to prove they are the future.

That, we now know, will not include Aaron Ramsey. The Wales star has now been told face-to-face that he will not be offered a new deal in the summer.

Ramsey complained on Thursday night that he had only been informed via his agent, although the invite to a meeting had already been sent.

Club officials then explained to the 27-yearold that he does not fit in with their long-term vision for the club.

If the senior Arsenal technical staff were guilty of being too slow off the mark, then the players last night were no better – 34 turgid minutes passed without a shot on target.

That all changed when Guendouzi whipped in an angled cross, Lichtsteiner stretched out a 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.

Ramsey himself should have doubled the lead before the break when he was picked out by Maitland-Niles on the edge of the six-yard box, but he was off balance and his shot flew high over the bar.

Arsenal’s first meaningful attack of the second period saw Jenkinson go on the overlap.

His cross was poor but Howard made such a mess of clawing it away he simply hooked the ball down to the feet of Smith Rowe, who gratefully scuffed it into the net.

Guendouzi was shown a second yellow for a cute tug on Jordan Thompson’s shirt. He had earlier been booked for a foul on the same player.

Blackpool then set up a nervy final 24 minutes when O’Connor found the net from another corner.

Petr Cech then lost possession and Nathan Delfouneso rolled the ball into the empty net only to be ruled offside.

And once O’Connor had been sent off, even six extra minutes were not going to be enough for the underdogs to pull off an upset.