By Tony Attwood
- Boring boring opposition (and journalists) but Arsenal are not being fooled
- Arsenal cheating allegations are a way of covering up the failure to deal with ManC
Yes the headline this morning is “Tudor insists Spurs going in right direction,” and I think for once I can agree with the Tottenham head thing, Igor Tudor, when he said that the “boat is going in the direction I want to go” Me too, although the phrase I might be tempted to add is “sinking fast”.
In the Premier League, West Ham, in a relegation position, are on 28 points and Tottenham are on 29 points, or by the way they played last night, 29 pints. As for the boat travelling in the right direction, I suppose the old song “Row row row your boat, gently down the drain” comes to mind.
But now we are one day away from an Arsenal game, so we have other matters on our minds. For at 1215 on Saturday, it is the big one, or at least bigger than Tottenham playing at home. For it is the FA Cup – 5th Round away to Mansfield at 1215.
So, having dealt with a little club like Tottenham, let us turn to some real opposition, as in Mansfield. A team we have only ever played once before, that being on 26 January 1929 when Arsenal won 2-0 in the FA Cup. Arsenal went on to the semi-final that season in the Cup, losing at that point to Villa.
But now back to Mansfield and their current record….
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Mansfield all games | 33 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 39 | 37 | 2 | 41 |
| 18 | Mansfield home only | 17 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 24 | 18 | 6 | 23 |
| 1 | Arsenal away only | 16 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 26 | 13 | 13 | 32 |
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As you can see, Arsenal have a better away record than Mansfield has a home record, even without taking into account the quality of the opposition (although I doubt if Mansfield has had to play any club whinging as much as Brighton did).
They have obviously played more games than Arsenal to get to their position in this round of the cup, so here are the details,
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Nov 25 | Mansfield Town v Harrogate Town | W | 3-2 | FA 1 |
| 6 Dec 25 | Accrington Stanley v Mansfield Town | W | 1-3 | FA 2 |
| 11 Jan 26 | Sheffield United v Mansfield Town | W | 3-4 | FA 3 |
| 14 Feb 26 | Burnley v Mansfield Town | W | 1-2 | FA 4 |
A solid set of wins, each by one goal except the Mansfield game, where it was a draw, and they won in extra time. But let us particularly note that in the last round, Mansfield beat Burnley, currently in the Premier League. That was a moment of great excitement and the hope of a reward against a top team. And indeed they can’t get any topper than Arsenal.
You will of course, fully realise that Arsenal join the Cup a bit later and so have only played two games so far, beating Portsmouth 1-4 away from home and then Wigan 4-0 at home. Those two results offer some hope of another comparatively high-scoring game.
But it must be pointed out that we have thus far only looked at their cup run. In the league, matters are a trifle different, as you will have guessed from the league position of the club noted above. If we take their last eight games in the league (which means starting from 27 January, they have lost three and drawn five, but have had no wins. The goal scoring total is four goals scored and eight conceded. Which is not completely overwhelming. All games have been in League One.
| Date | Game | Res | Score |
| 27 Jan 2026 | Plymouth Argyle v Mansfield Town | D | 1-1 |
| 31 Jan 2026 | Mansfield Town v Wycombe Wanderers | D | 0-0 |
| 7 Feb 2026 | Mansfield Town v Exeter City | D | 0-0 |
| 10 Feb 2026 | Mansfield Town v Peterborough United | L | 1-2 |
| 17 Feb 2026 | Blackpool v Mansfield Town | L | 1-0 |
| 21 Feb 2026 | Mansfield Town v Lincoln City | L | 0-2 |
| 28 Feb 2026 | Mansfield Town v Wimbledon | D | 2-2 |
| 3 Mar 2026 | Rotherham United v Mansfield Town | D | 0-0 |
If for a moment we take a look at Arsenal’s last eight league games we see five wins, two draws and a defeat with a goal tally of 17 for Arsenal and eight for the opposition.
Now I am hopeful that Mansfield Town will be a much more honourable club than Brighton and Hove turned out to be, with all their whinging and whining after the last game. Fortunately others have realised how pathetic that commentary from the Brighton management appears and have treated it with the derision it deserves, but there are always a few newspapermen who are not quite up to speed with events who take comments against Arsenal seriously.
But anyway, we prepare with some enthusiasm for this game against a club we have only ever played once before, and I am sure that game was in the lifetime of any of our readers – indeed not even me!
