Arsenal draw Southampton or Shrewsbury Town in FA Cup 4th round – Arseblog News

Arsenal’s reward for Saturday’s win against Newcastle United is an away draw versus Southampton or League One side Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup 4th round.

There is some suggestion that the Saints will get a walkover after Shrewsbury were unable to fulfil Saturday’s 3rd round clash at Saint Mary’s due to a Covid-19 outbreak in their camp. We’re not entirely sure when a decision will be taken on this, but presumably, it’ll be soon.

An away trip against Southampton would certainly represent a tough test for Mikel Arteta’s holders who are already due to face Ralph Hassenhutel’s side in the Premier League in the same week.

We’ve faced the Saints in the FA Cup twice in the last 20 years. We beat them 1-0 in the FA Cup final in 2003 and 5-0 at Saint Mary’s in 2017 when Theo Walcott scored a hat-trick. The Gunners have played Shrewsbury three times in the FA Cup. We won 2-0 at Highbury having been taken to a replay in 1968 and also beat them 1-0 at New Gay Meadow in 1991, courtesy of a Michael Thomas thunderbolt.

The FA Cup games are scheduled to take place between 22-25 January and the league encounter is pencilled in for 26th January.

Should we beat Southampton or Shrewsbury we’ll face Chorley or Wolves.

The FA decided to hold a double draw to aid the planning of ties due to the hectic schedule.