John Mousinho speaks to The News after Pompey's 4-1 defeat to Arsenal
The Blues did themselves proud against the Premier League leaders, but there are more important matters to attend to
Determined to hammer home a painful point to Pompey’s owner, Harry Redknapp once purposely selected an understrength side to lock horns with Arsenal.
Consisting of recalls for such illustrious Fratton Park figures as Gregory Vignal, Aliou Cisse, Zvonimir Vukic and Jhon Viafara amid six changes in the December 2005 fixture. It was prime self-sabotage, short-term pain to drive long-term gain.
Colby Bishop opens the scoring for Pompey in the third minute of their FA Cup defeat to Arsenal. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImagesplaceholder image
Colby Bishop opens the scoring for Pompey in the third minute of their FA Cup defeat to Arsenal. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages | Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages
With that January transfer window days away from opening, the severely-weakened Blues were 4-0 down after 43 minutes, with chairman Milan Mandaric an uncomfortable spectator at Highbury. Redknapp had spoken.
Some 21 years later, there weren’t even enough players available for John Mousinho to initiate a similar stunt against Arsenal on Sunday, should he so wished. Indeed, the only example of rotation involved changing goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid.
Unless Harvey Blair and Franco Umeh dutifully faked injury in an elaborate pre-meditated ploy, this was truthfully the brittleness of Pompey’s squad laid bare in front of the TNT cameras.
No smoke and mirrors, hidden trickery or clever use of AI here, the Championship strugglers really do have just 18 senior players available for first-team duty at Sheffield Wednesday next weekend.
A powerful reminder
The Blues are desperately short on numbers and quality. Unless both concerns are drastically addressed during the final 20 days of the transfer window, then it will be League One football next season.
John Mousinho and Mikel Arteta at Pompey’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImagesplaceholder image
John Mousinho and Mikel Arteta at Pompey’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages | Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages
Yet while Pompey can rightly bemoan the injury absence of nine players, in truth how many of those would be automatic first-team starters? And therein lies the problem.
It cannot possibly be argued that a fully-fit Lang and Murphy are cast-iron Championship calibre. The remaining seven have much to do to convince at that level as regular starters, certainly in the 2025-26 season.
The problem is Mousinho cannot afford to wait, he requires players who can make an immediate impact, experienced performers to lift the team, able to drive up standards and help secure safety. Today, not tomorrow.
Granted, that will necessitate the postponement of the Eisners’ favoured recruitment model, it will demand a ramping up on transfer spending, it will need a much-improved signing success rate when compared to disappointing summer dealings.
This is no time for financial frugality and chasing the lost cause of self-sustainability in the crackpot world of the Championship. While laudable, it simply isn’t practical at present.
It cannot be argued that such an approach finally dragged Pompey back to this level of football, yet, by continuing to abide by such restrictive parameters, it has so far produced successive relegation battles.
Reasons to be cheerful
Zak Swanson battles for possession with Ben White in Pompey's FA Cup clash. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImagesplaceholder image
Zak Swanson battles for possession with Ben White in Pompey's FA Cup clash. Picture: Graham Hunt/ProSportsImages
Colby Bishop even handed Mousinho’s men a shock third-minute lead, thereby ending a 19-game goal drought, yet it was his all-round game and influence which also came roaring back to form.
Conor Shaughnessy and Regan Poole are back in tandem in the centre of defence, Terry Devlin is arguably this season’s success story, while Zak Swanson again shone at left-back, while demonstrating his remarkable knack at stepping up in the big games.
Connor Ogilvie made his first appearance in almost two-and-a-half months following injury and Josef Bursik again showed he is a fine deputy for the rested Schmid. Worryingly, the goalkeeper is one of only two recruits from last summer to have proven excellent captures.
It’s just that the Blues were once again undone by set-pieces, with Arsenal roaring back through Andre Dozzell unluckily putting into his own net and a hat-trick from Gabriel Martinelli. Alarmingly, three of those goals arrived from corners.
Regardless, it was a rip-roaring FA Cup tie, particularly in the first half, with Pompey providing a welcome throwback to those underdog Premier League days when the best sides in the country loathed visiting Fratton Park.
Back to earth
Still, time to plummet back down to earth and focus on what really matters this season - the January transfer window.
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Soberingly, Lang’s ongoing hamstring injuries restricted him to 22 matches in 2025, while Shaughnessy turned out just 15 times last year. In addition, Murphy has missed 43 per cent of the Blues’ games in 2025-26 so far.
Of Sunday’s 20-man squad, Luke Le Roux, Blair, Umeh, Jacob Farrell, Makenzie Kirk and Ibane Bowat have 18 career Championship starts between them.
Pompey’s squad problems are there for all to see. Hopefully the owners will now act upon it, otherwise it will be Bromley rather than West Ham offering the Fratton faithful a new ground to visit next season.
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