FA Cup

In what proved to be a pain in the eyes for all Arsenal fans, their “complete” team was dumped out of the FA Cup last night, thus duly ending a miserable and heart wrenching fortnight for the Gunners who had been dreaming of the quadruple, only weeks ago. The Birmingham defeat started the great collapse of the Arsenal team and with them getting little support from the referees; it seems to be the same old script of the past few seasons being written all over again.

It is of no doubt that both the teams wanted to avoid facing each other as they were in a similar position with low morale and depleting hopes. The squad selection of Ferguson amply justified that when he named seven “defenders” in the starting lineup. But Ferguson has always brought out some new theory which even the greatest pundits of football could never have predicted.

The Arsenal Story

Arsenal just have themselves and partly lady luck to blame for their ouster from the three competitions in the space of a fortnight. The horrible mix up between Sczesny and Laurent Koscielny proved to be the turning point of the Gunner’s season. And with Bussacca nailing their champions league hopes when they were looking on course to steal away the tie from Nou Camp was a hard one to digest. The fallbacks were clearly visible yesterday when a certain group of Arsenal players were clearly looking disoriented and disinterested. Van Der Sar ensured that all Arsenal attacks were kept at bay but apart from Wilshere and Djourrou, no one was up to the task. Even Nasri looked pale in comparison to his usual self. Van persie had a forgettable night along with the Russian talisman Arshavin. They need to pick themselves up ahead of their title defence and I still believe Arsenal has what it takes to win the league.

The Manchester Story

Manchester United could not have asked for a better opponent yesterday even if backlash from the Gunners were a possible indication.  Packing the team with seven defenders puzzled one and all. But the attacking prowess of Fabio and Rafael were there to be seen. Rooney exhibited some fine midfield play and defeating the disheartened Arsenal side backed by their own supporters proved to be an easy task, the late pressure from Arsenal notwithstanding. With Chelsea and Arsenal to still face in the league, the world’s oldest competition could yet turn out to be their only silverware this season. An all Manchester clash at Wembley looks more and more likely now.

Match Review

Both the teams started on a shaky note but it was Manchester who drew the first blood when a superb cross from Rafael found Hernandes who unselfishly headed it to the path of Fabio who made no mistake in slotting the ball into the empty net. The pressure seemed to mount upon the Arsenal side, but Rooney made sure of a Wembley match with a 48^th minute strike. With Djorou injuring and ruling himself out for the rest of the season, tough times lay ahead of Wenger. They are surely missing Vermaelen.

Tags: Arsenal, FA Cup, Football, Gunners, Manchester United, Wembley