Arsene Wenger continued his extraordinary 21-year unbeaten record in the FA Cup at the third round stage.
Olivier Giroud – who else? – scored in the dying minutes of the game to sink a plucky Preston, who took the lead through Callum Robinson after just seven minutes.
The Championship side failed to convert a string of gilt-edged chances when they were on top in the first half, with the misses coming back to haunt them at the final whistle.
After the break Wales midfielder Ramsey scored straight away for his first goal of the season and it started a period of dominance for the North London side which culminated in the late winner.
10 - Olivier Giroud has scored in each of his last eight starts for Arsenal in all competitions, netting 10 goals. Clinical.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 7, 2017
The Gunners’ awful display in the first half, of course, had the #Wengerout brigade vocal as ever.
Chants of "We want Wenger out" drowned out by "Come on Arsenal".
— Moh Haider (@ArsenalMoh8) January 7, 2017
Things are going to get very toxic if we don't turn this around.#PNEvAFC
Miraculous 1st half performance by #Arsenal - actually worse than 1st half vs Bournemouth. #FACup
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 7, 2017
Haven't seen Arsenal perform this badly in a first half since....their last game at Bournemouth.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 7, 2017
When Arsenal last won away I still had hair
— Matt Lucas (@RealMattLucas) January 7, 2017
There was also good news in the shape of the returning Danny Welbeck playing his first game from a long-term injury.
Giroud said after the game: “They put a lot of intensity in the duels …we wanted to show something else in the second half, but we need to start better the game.
Giroud & Ramsey both said Arsenal were surprised by the commitment of Preston pic.twitter.com/wbtPmn4rhg
— Memz Dogi 🇹🇷 (@AFCMemz) January 7, 2017
Ramsey said: “They took us by surprise, we didn’t match their intensity and effort … I am happy that one has finally gone in. It gave us momentum to get the result.
“We keep going to the end and have scored a lot of late goals. We have that belief.”
And, there was some uplifting news as fans remembered Mustafi remained unbeaten in every game he has played with Arsenal.
Shkodran Mustafi's record at Arsenal since joining:
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) January 7, 2017
WWWDWWWWWWDDWWWWDW
18 games
0 losses#afc pic.twitter.com/wTXPfnH2Rf
