It was a baptism of fire, yet John Mousinho is adamant Benjy Arthur emphatically demonstrated why he’s physically equipped to survive in the Championship.
The Blues boss turned to the Brentford loanee after Regan Poole was feeling a hamstring issue following the previous weekend’s defeat against QPR.
Benjy Arthur made his first Football League start in Pompey's 3-1 win at Lincoln. Picture: Jason Brownplaceholder image
Benjy Arthur made his first Football League start in Pompey's 3-1 win at Lincoln. Picture: Jason Brown | Jason Brown
It meant the 20-year-old partnered Conor Shaughnessy in the centre of Pompey’s defence for Saturday’s trip to Lincoln, representing his Football League debut.
Arthur grew into the match as Mousinho’s men claimed a 3-1 victory to open their win account for the 2026-27 season. And the youngster’s performance afterwards had Mousinho singing his praises.
‘I think Benjy is unique
He told The News: ‘Sometimes one of the criticisms you get from PL2, in particular, is when the young lads come down, they haven’t been used to that physical contact.
‘I think Benjy is unique in that he’s one of the centre-halves you can rely on to come in and play at a place like Lincoln - and I thought he did very well.
‘He grew into the game. To add context to the situation, this was his first league start in England. He’s had a bit of exposure at Brentford, who rate him really highly, and you can see why.
Pompey defender Regan Poole missed Saturday’s win at Lincoln through a hamstring issue.placeholder image
Pompey defender Regan Poole missed Saturday’s win at Lincoln through a hamstring issue. | Iconic Media Group
‘He’s had that exposure up in Scotland with Celtic, but I can guarantee you that Celtic’s dominance up there and the way their league is is very different to what he’s going to face here - and what he has faced in this game in particular.
‘So for him to go into the game and stand up like that up - and as the match went on as well - he was showing the physicality in terms of the endurance and fitness levels to get through. Which was great.’
Fans had been calling for change
Many fans had been calling for a change at centre-half following successive 3-1 defeats in the opening two matches of the campaign.
Ultimately, it was a decision forced upon Mousinho. Poole, having attempted to train on Tuesday, was left out for the trip to Sincil Bank as a precautionary measure.
Arthur has featured for Brentford in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, while he represented Celtic six times during the second half of last season.
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Having made his Blues bow coming off the bench in the defeat to QPR, he was presented with his full debut against League One champions Brentford.
Poole is now expected to be fit to challenge for a return to Mousinho’s starting XI at Bristol City next weekend - although Arthur will be fighting him all the way.
Mousinho added: ‘We lost out this week with Regan, he was feeling his hamstrings off the back of the QPR game.
‘Regan wanted to play, he trained on Tuesday, but just wasn’t feeling right. So what we decided to do was say to Regan if you declare yourself fit for the weekend, I am judging you on that and will probably judge you at 80 per cent.
‘That’s not the right thing to do - and we have other centre-halves in the building that are ready to go.’
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