Arsenal braced for fright night at ‘Fortress Fratton’
Portsmouth targeting an 11th straight home win Europa League loss has added to visitors’ anxiety
As the likes of Pierre-emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Ozil start their homework ahead of Arsenal’s FA Cup trip to Portsmouth tonight, they could do worse than study the exploits of Ivan Toney, a little-known striker who is operating out of Peterborough United.
Toney would no doubt be the first to admit he is not the usual inspiration for players of Aubameyang and Lacazette’s calibre, yet the 23-year-old’s recent work is certainly worth a look. That is because Toney has done what no other man has done in the league in the past 13 months: scored a winning goal against Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
Fortress Fratton, as they are calling it, has been breached just once in League One since Jan 12 last year, when Toney scored twice in Peterborough’s 3-2 win in April.
More recently, no team have left Fratton Park with any points at all: Friday’s 3-0 victory over Rochdale was Portsmouth’s 10th consecutive home victory in all competitions, and they are the only side in the English Football League to remain unbeaten at home this season.
The old ground has been through some tough times in recent years, and it shows in more than a few places, but the charm and history of the place will only make it harder for Mikel Arteta’s side tonight.
It can be hostile, too. In the biggest game at Fratton Park last season, a League One play-off semi-final, Sunderland defender Luke O’nien appeared to be punched and kicked by a Portsmouth supporter after he tumbled over the advertising hoardings and into the home crowd.
Earlier this season, Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said he had never experienced an atmosphere like that at Fratton Park during their League Cup tie.
“I would not necessarily use the word ‘intimidating’,” said Kenny Jackett, the Portsmouth manager tasked with masterminding what would be the upset of the fifth round. “But it’s an old-fashioned ground, tight, with a fantastic and passionate crowd. We have to use those assets, definitely.
“In the end it is 11 versus 11 and that is what counts, but to use those things, we would be stupid not to. It is a major asset of the club, in any competition. We have a fantastic atmosphere when we get going and a crowd that get right behind us.”
Portsmouth are going strong in League One, where they are very much in the race for automatic promotion, and Jackett has form in this competition. He took Millwall to the semi-finals in 2013 and reached the final as a player for Watford in 1984, losing to Everton.
“I am proud to be the manager of the last League One side in the competition,” he said. “That is a good achievement.”
It is an occasion that will bring back memories of some of those special nights at Fratton Park in the 2000s. Some of the supporters there tonight will have been at the ground in 2004, when the home crowd took the remarkable, unlikely step of singing Thierry Henry’s name after the Frenchman had helped Arsenal to defeat Portsmouth 5-1 in the FA Cup.
“If you are looking at the ups and downs of Portsmouth, they’ve had a lot of highs, [such as being] FA Cup winners [in 2008], but then spent four years in League Two and before that administration, where they did really well to be able to climb out,” said Jackett.
“We want to try to get back into the upper echelons of the pyramid. On Monday night there will be a national focus on us and that will be great.”
Portsmouth’s Sean Raggett is an Arsenal fan, and played against them for Lincoln City in the quarter-finals of 2017. “You have to go into every game believing you can get a result,” he told the Portsmouth website. “We will do our homework and treat it like we are playing any side in League One.”
Christian Burgess, meanwhile, was on Arsenal’s books as a youngster, when he played in the same side as Jack Wilshere. “It gave me an appreciation of how the game should be played,” he said. “We know a lot of their players and how they like to play. It is about working it out when it gets on to the pitch. Anything can happen.”
Arsenal’s crushing defeat by Olympiacos in the Europa League last Thursday night will not help their self-confidence. Portsmouth, and their crowd, will be ready to seize on any signs of weakness in a tie that looks likely to be one of the most entertaining of this season’s competition.