A big surprise happened in the first semifinals of the FA Cup today, with Arsenal defeating Manchester City, 2-0, with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang netting twice.
Gunners Stun Guardiola’s Guys
City had more of ball possession, but on the other side, the Gunners were the ones who scored in this match, securing themselves a chance to fight for one trophy this season.
Arsenal was inferior some might say, but others would add that Arteta’s squad did exactly what was needed to defeat the Citizens. They would allow City to have the ball in its feet, dragging their backline far away from the goal area, making it much easier to find a whole and attack from the counter-attack.
In the end, Guardiola’s machinery had 71% of the ball possession, 17 shots on goal, but just two of them on target. On the other side, Arsenal had four goal attempts, all of them on target.
They were the ones who had a big chance, with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang reaching into one-on-one position but managing to hit Ederson from some few yards away. Shortly after that, the same player redeemed himself for the miss, beating the Brazilian goalie after Nicolas Pepe’s assist.
From that moment on, everything was in City’s hands, with the winners of last year’s cup pressuring Arsenal’s entire team in search of an equalizer.
One by one De Bruyne, Silva, Mahrez, and other players were threatening to Martinez, but without some notable action or attempt.
Kevin De Bruyne was excellent in the midfield, but it seems that he didn’t have any support form his teammates. Among the Gunners, David Luiz finally showed a glimpse of his talent. The veteran defender had 10 clearances and four interceptions and carried the whole defense on his back throughout the entire game.
We haven’t seen him for a while in this mode, and if he continues to play like this, Arsenal will have solid chances to win the trophy, regardless of the opponent in the final match,
Aubameyang added one more goal to his tally in the 72nd minute, once he received a nice pass inside the box and routinely deceived Ederson, who didn’t have any chance to save his shot.
Arsenal will meet the better from Manchester United vs. Chelsea matchup which takes place tomorrow night.
United and Chelsea for Prestige
We can say that these two sides care less about this event than about the remaining two games in the Premiership. Back there, the Champions League is at stake, and the current situation for both the Blues and the Red Devils is not good at all. Chelsea holds the third place with one point more than Leicester and United, but they play against Liverpool in the next round. United, however, goes to Leicester in the last match of the campaign.
All in all, they are probably more worried about that than about this clash. We are yet to see the lineups at Wembley, as there are some rumors that both Lampard and Solskjaer might start the meeting with mixed squads.
