Beyond the thirst for upsets that still makes FA Cup third round weekend such compulsive viewing, there is sometimes a laboured search for meaning in ties that pit two Premier League teams with higher priorities against each other at this stage of the competition.
Sometimes, the importance of a match like Arsenal-Liverpool is laced with questions about the significance of the game beyond the desire to avoid a replay. Those questions hung over this game, too, but by the time it was over, it was hard to doubt its significance for both sides.
Particularly Arsenal.