FA Cup : Butler-Oyedeji benched for 90 minutes as Arsenal beat Oxford United, to face Man City

Arsenal progressed to the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup on Monday night as they beat League One side, Oxford United, 3-0 at the Kassam Stadium to set up a clash against Manchester City. 

Anglo-Nigerian youngster Nathan Butler-Oyedeji was on the substitute bench for the entire duration of the game. 

Arsenal were slightly more adventurous in the first half and could have been awarded a penalty if the referee had deemed Cameron Brannagan's handling of the ball from Albert Lokonga's shot as punishable. 

Oxford however were organised defensively and resisted the pressure from the Gunners. 

The first half ended goalless and Arsenal were desperate to avoid a replay but the hosts denied Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Takehiro Tomiyasu from scoring in the second half. 

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta brought on the duo of Granit Xhaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko for Lokonga and Kieran Tierney.

Arsenal then broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute when Mohamed Elneny headed home a free kick from Pablo Vieira. 

Nketiah scored the second goal for Arsenal in the 70th minute when he rounded the Oxford keeper, Edward McGinty, after a good pass from Vieira. 

Emile Smith-Rowe was introduced by Arteta 15 minutes to full time and a minute later, Nketiah got his second goal of the match when he finished off Gabriel Martinelli's pass. 

Butler-Oyedeji's non availability was confirmed when the last set of substitutions were made by the Arsenal technical crew with Ben White and Marquinhos coming on to replace Tomiyasu and Vieria. 

 Izuchukwu Michael
 

Photo Credit : thefa.com

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