Arsenal captain fantastic slotting in his brace to finally dump Manchester City out of the FA Cup
By Oliver Holt
Manchester City earned a momentous reprieve in one competition last week but in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley with only 90,000 empty seats as judge and jury, they could not escape their sentence. The Court of Arbitration for Sport might have allowed them back into the Champions League for the next two seasons, but Arsenal showed them no mercy here.
Their shock 2-0 victory was a triumph of uncharacteristic resilience in defence, led by a brilliant display from David Luiz, and of clinical finishing from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored goals in each half to dump City out of the competition they won last year by trouncing Watford in the final. Arsenal will play either Manchester United or Chelsea in the final on August 1.
It was also the most significant victory yet for Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, who has only been in charge at the Emirates since December but is already effecting improvements in attitude and style. This one was a victory for the apprentice over his old master as Arteta plotted a way past his former boss, Pep Guardiola. Arsenal are languishing in ninth place in the Premier League but suddenly their season has new life. They beat champions Liverpool on Wednesday and this result stunned English football. City were widely expected to win this match and claim the FA Cup as their consolation prize for losing the Premier League but they spurned chance after chance and never looked at their best.
City will now be able to pour everything into their pursuit of the Champions League but if they show the same vulnerability at the back in the second leg of their second round match against Real Madrid as they did here against Arsenal, the Spanish champions will fancy their chances of overhauling their first leg deficit. Overwhelmed by Liverpool in the league, this defeat was a rude shock for Guardiola and his team.
The empty stadium seemed particularly stark here. FA Cup semi-final day is usually a riot of colour and a feast of fan expectation and nerves. It is a day out as much as a football match, a day to dream of the final and sing about putting the champagne on ice. Not this time. Not now. Here, there were groundsmen forking the pitch and music echoing around an empty Wembley. It is a necessary measure for now but that does not stop it feeling all wrong.
Even with nine substitutes, Arteta could not find any room for either Mesut Ozil or Matteo Guendouzi in his squad. It is starting to feel increasingly likely that neither will be at the club next season, although finding someone to pay Ozil’s wages has always been put forward as the biggest stumbling block to the Germany midfielder moving on.
Arteta stayed true to the same system he had used in Wednesday’s victory over champions Liverpool at the Emirates and lined up with Kieran Tierney on the left side of a back three. It is the system that seems to get the best out of David Luiz – or do most to protect him, depending on your point of view – and after some heart-stopping early exchanges, Arsenal used it well.
Arsenal nearly handed City an early lead in the ninth minute with the kind of comedy defending that has become one of their hallmarks. Luiz played the ball square across his own box to Shkodran Mustafi who tried to step inside Raheem Sterling as Sterling closed him down. It had trouble written all over it.
Sterling dispossessed Mustafi easily six yards out and it appeared Arsenal were about to be severely embarrassed. Sterling tried to play the ball inside to give Gabriel Jesus a tap-in but Mustafi’s blushes were spared when the pass was intercepted and the danger cleared. It felt already as if Arsenal were in for a long evening.
Arteta’s side were starved of possession and defending with a degree of desperation. Kevin de Bruyne floated a ball to the back post, Riyad Mahrez nodded it back across goal and it was hacked clear before City could apply the finishing touch. By then, Kieran Tierney had already had to make a separate last-ditch clearance.
But after quarter of an hour, Arsenal should have taken the lead. Luiz has been roundly criticised since the restart, but he received a ringing endorsement from Pep Guardiola last week when the City manager said he laughed when he heard pundits dismissing his talent. On cue, Luiz intercepted a long ball forward, chested it down, and played a slide-rule pass through to Aubameyang. Aubameyang was clean through but he hit his shot straight at Ederson, who saved it easily.
City did not learn from their escape though. A minute later, at the end of an 18-pass move that had started in Arsenal’s area and included ten players, Nicolas Pepe curled a ball across the City box to the back post. Aubameyang drifted away from Kyle Walker and met the ball as it dropped, clipping a right-footed half-volley past Ederson from a difficult angle. The keeper had no chance and the ball went in off the far post.
It was a brilliant finish to a superb move. It is easy to mock Arsenal’s talent for self-destruction, but the goal was crafted from the courage to stick to their plan of playing the ball out from the back and beating the City press. Even though they had nearly come unstuck earlier, this time they had the skill and the confidence to work it perfectly. Arsenal nearly allowed City back into the game when Hector Bellerin played the ball straight to Gabriel Jesus on the edge of the Arsenal area. It looked curiously precise and deliberate, as if he meant it and it almost created the equaliser. Gabriel Jesus laid the ball back to De Bruyne, but his thunderous drive was blocked superbly by Granit Xhaka, who flung himself into its path.
When Arsenal kept the ball long enough to fashion any kind of a foray forward, City looked alarmingly open at the back. Walker headed behind after one Arsenal breakaway and when Dani Ceballos curled in the corner, Mustafi met it at the near post and forced a fine save out of Ederson, who leapt to tip it over the crossbar.
City had grown uncharacteristically sloppy in possession, too, giving the ball away so often it felt like an offence against nature. Arsenal deserve credit for that, too, because they harried City out of their stride. As half time approached, Guardiola began to look increasingly irritated with the performance of his team. City spurned a golden chance to equalise three minutes into the second half. David Silva fed the ball to De Bruyne, who cut inside and slid it across the area into the path of Sterling. Sterling met it first time but pulled his left foot wide of the post from ten yards out.
Arsenal settled into a state of siege. De Bruyne whistled a free kick inches wide of the post after an hour, Arsenal survived a VAR delay when a clumsy challenge from Mustafi sent Sterling sprawling and then, when Mustafi inadvertently flicked on a City corner, Sterling could not react in time to turn his header past Emiliano Martinez. Arsenal were clinging on. De Bruyne drilled a cross to the near post but Silva sidefooted it wide. It seemed as if it could only be a matter of time until City equalised but then Arsenal completed their smash and grab with a second goal.
Pepe burst forward down the Arsenal left and then laid a pass back to Tierney. Tierney lofted a ball forward towards Aubameyang, who was played onside by Benjamin Mendy. Aubameyang advanced on Ederson and slid the ball underneath him. City could scarcely believe it but their consternation was complete a few minutes later when Sterling seemed about to bring them back into the match as he turned past Mustafi and lined up a shot. As the ball sped towards goal, Luiz flung himself at it and blocked it with his right leg. His transformation from villain to hero was complete. Arsenal were in the final.
Culled from MailOnline
