Arsenal picked up a huge morale boosting 4-1 win against Everton in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup to book their place at Wembley. Mesut Ozil’s early goal was cancelled out by Chelsea loanee Romelu Lukaku in the first half, and the teams pretty much cancelled each other out for large periods before a Mikel Arteta penalty put the Gunners 2-1 ahead shortly after the hour mark. Olivier Giroud came off the bench to grab himself an excellent brace to add gloss to the scoreline and give Arsenal some much needed confidence after a poor run of recent results.
Arsenal made a massive 6 changes to the team that lost to Stoke City last weekend, with the international break also playing its part in the Gunners’ team selection. Lukasz Fabianski returned in goal as he has for all the domestic cup games thus far this season, while Yaya Sanogo was a surprise selection ahead of Olivier Giroud. Mathieu Flamini, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mesut Ozil were always expected to return for this game, while skipper Thomas Vermaelean got a surprise call up.
Everton too made four changes to their squad, the most notable being the selection of the lanky Joel Robles in goal. Ross Barkley moved into a central playmaking role while the Belgian duo of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas led the line.
There were some early nerves around the Emirates after the team’s abysmal run of late, but the man under the most pressure, Ozil, eased the worries with a perfectly placed finish from a Santi Cazorla pass to put the Gunners ahead in just 7 minutes.
Arsenal bossed the game for the first half an hour but Everton looked dangerous on the break. An early opportunity fell the way of Steven Pienaar, who scuffed his effort under pressure from Bacary Sagna.
The Gunners earned corner after corner in the first half, but were completely ineffectual on setplays, wasting 10 opportunities in the first half alone. Everton’s stand-in keeper Robles wasn’t covering himself in glory though, and nearly conspired to put a Sagna cross into his own net under no pressure at all, but was saved by the width of the crossbar.
Everton grabbed their equalizer completely against the run of play as a Mikel Arteta shot blocked on the edge of the Everton box by Gareth Barry, resulted in a counter attack master minded by Ross Barkley. The young England superstar picked out Mirallas perfectly at the far post, but his effort came off his heel and fell invitingly to Lukaku in the middle, who stroked it into an empty net from barely a yard out.
Arsenal threatened to regain their advantage almost instantly as Oxlade-Chamberlain got on the end of a Sanogo knock down and drove into the box, but his powerful left-footed drive was well saved by Robles.
‘The Ox’ was in the thick of the action at both ends, giving the ball away to Lukaku and then racing back to make a last ditch tackle to deny the Belgian powerhouse when he was about to pull the trigger.
The teams went into the break on level pegging in what was already an absorbing Cup tie.
Arsenal came out of the break looking to dominate the game once again and created some good half chances, but the best opportunity from the early exchanges came Everton’s way as Lukaku robbed the ball from a nervy Vermaelen and strode into the box. The Belgian played a perfect cut back to Barkley, who had the goal at his mercy but somehow conspired to shoot over.
With Sanogo proving completely ineffective in the final third, Arsene Wenger finally threw on Olivier Giroud to try and win his side the game. And Arsenal did regain the lead, despite the best efforts of Giroud! Oxlade-Chamberlain won Arsenal a penalty, having been tripped in the box by Barry. Arteta stepped up and stroked home a perfect penalty, only to be asked to take it again after Giroud raced into the box prematurely. Arteta though held his nerve to put Arsenal 2-1 ahead in the 68th minute.
Everton threw on some reinforcements of their own in Leon Osman and Aiden McGeady, but it was Giroud who buried the game for Arsenal and booked a long overdue return to Wembley with a smart finish at the near post after Bacary Sagna was given ages to pick the perfect pass.
And it was to get even better for the Gunners as Giroud grabbed a fourth for Arsenal to put the game firmly to bed, tapping home after a gorgeous flowing typical one touch Arsenal move with Rosicky and Ozil moving the ball onto him to finish.
The scoreline may not have been a fair reflection of how well Everton played in this game and the opportunities they had, but for Arsenal it was a massive confidence boost before they head to Munich on Tuesday for what truly is Mission Impossible.
Teams:
Arsenal: Fabianski, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs (Jenkinson 88′), Flamini, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Rosicky 78′), Ozil, Cazorla, Sanogo (Giroud 61′).
Subs: Rosicky, Podolski, Giroud, Viviano, Jenkinson, Miyaichi, Gnabry.
Everton: Robles, Coleman, Stones, Distin, Baines, McCarthy, Barry, Mirallas (McGeady 76′), Barkley (Deulofeu 84′), Pienaar (Osman 76′), Lukaku.
Subs: Hibbert, McGeady, Deulofeu, Naismith, Osman, Howard, Browning.
Score: Arsenal 4-1 Everton (Ozil 7′, Lukaku 32′, Arteta 68′ p, Giroud 83′, 85′)
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