Report: Oxford targeted £25m Arsenal player on Monday, wanted their players to run directly at him

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A key part of Oxford United’s gameplan against Arsenal was running at left-back Kieran Tierney as they targeted him pre-match.

A report by the Telegraph offered the inside track into Karl Robinson’s approach to the FA Cup third round clash on Monday night.

The tie ended up being a 3-0 Gunners win, but it was 0-0 at half-time and Oxford certainly gave a good account of themselves.

The report claims that Oxford wanted to get Josh Murphy running up against the £25 million Scotland international.

Oxford targeted Tierney by getting Murphy to run at him

The stats apparently showed that approach had some degree of success, with Murphy doing it five times over the course of the game.

But Oxford could not make the most of it and get the opening goal which would have swung the game their way and given them something to defend.

Arsenal got the win in the end to set up a very tough fourth round clash with Manchester City in the final weekend of January.

Tierney is a fan favourite at Arsenal but has had not had much in the way of regular football this season after the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Zinchenko came on on the hour mark with the score at 0-0, and within minutes, Arsenal had opened the scoring and were on course for the next round.

Tierney is a more conventional full-back, preferring to run down the outside but trying to adjust to Mikel Arteta’s approach where he prefers his left-back to come inside and link play.

Zinchenko is far better at that than the Scotland international, and seems to have usurped him as first choice for the most important games.

It was reported in November that there will be interest in Tierney this month, but Paul Merson thinks Arteta should keep the defender around.

The fixtures will continue to come thick and fast for Arsenal, with the Europa League set to resume next month and top clubs do tend to have two quality players for every position.

The challenge for Tierney is to get back to his best form without playing every week and taking every single opportunity to impress.