Arsenal used the tumult of an FA Cup third round tie to move another step closer to winning the Premier League when they overcame Portsmouth at Fratton Park in driving, swirling rain, in front of a hostile, frenetic, loud, jeering, mocking, unfettered crowd on the south coast on Sunday afternoon.
This was football as some of the young Arsenal players trusted to negotiate this test by Mikel Arteta may not have experienced it before. This was football without the mute button. This was football unsanitised. This was football, raw and testing, and ragged and exposed at one of the most evocative and atmospheric grounds in the country.